🔵If Rudyard Kipling If by Rudyard Kipling Explanation If Poem by Rudyard Kipling Summary If Analysis

If, by Rudyard Kipling, if you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too, if you can wait and not be tired by waiting, or being lied about don't deal in lies, or being hated don't give way to hating, and yet don't look too good nor talk too wise, if you can dream and not make dreams your master, if you can think and not make thoughts your aim, if you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same, if you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken, twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, and stoop to build them up with worn-out tools, if you can make one heap of all your winnings, and risk it on one turn of pitch and toss, and lose and start again at your beginnings, and never breathe a word about your loss, if you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve your turn long after they are gone, and so hold on when there is nothing in you, except the will which says to them, hold on, if you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, or walk with kings nor lose the common touch, if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, if all men count with you but none too much, if you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds' worth of distance run, yours is the earth and everything that's in it, and which is more, you'll be a man, my son. OK, I think this poem was written about 1895, but I think it wasn't first published until about 1910, so let's look at it. If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, so if you can stay calm, stay cool when everybody's going crazy and they're blaming the problem on you, it's your fault, if you can trust yourself, so be confident when all men doubt you, when people are doubting about you, but make allowance for their doubting too, so take into account, maybe there's something in what they say, if you can wait and not be tired by waiting, so wait and be patient, or being lied about, don't deal in lies, so when people are lying about you, it's easy to start lying about them, or being hated, don't give way to hating, so if someone hates you, don't start hating, and yet don't look too good, so don't make yourself look absolutely fantastic, nor talk too wise, so don't be too proud of yourself, don't sound too intelligent, too much of a know-it-all. If you can dream and not make dreams your master, so you can dream about things that you could do, but not spend your life lost in dreams, if you can think and not make thoughts your aim, so if you can think about things and think about life and think about philosophy, but again, don't spend all your life thinking, if you can meet with triumph and disaster, and treat those two imposters just the same, so if something really good happens, or something really bad happens, you need to treat both situations equally, you can't be really happy if you're successful, or really depressed, don't give way to those emotions, if you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken, so if what you've said is true, but it's not very nice, even about yourself, and you need to be able to listen to that, or the truth you've spoken, twisted by knaves, to make a trap for fools, so you hear the truth that you've spoken, the thing that you've said, but it's twisted by knaves, by dishonest people, to make a trap for people who are not very intelligent, so you have to listen to other people twisting your words, but not get upset, or watch the things you gave your life to broken, so you see something that you put a huge amount of effort, you put your life's work into it, and it becomes broken, and stoop, and bend down, and build them up with worn out tools, and you can then start to rebuild it, even though the you're using are tired and old, or even if you're feeling tired, and you can do it again, if you can make one heap of all your winnings, and risk it on one turn of pitch and toss, so if you can gamble everything that you have, and risk it, well pitch and toss is talking about gambling, but if you're prepared to risk everything for something that you think is worthwhile, and lose, so you put it all into a project, and then it doesn't work, and start again, and begin again at your beginnings, and never breathe a word about your loss, so you don't undo that, but without telling anyone, I've lost everything, no just keep going, if you can force your heart, and nerve, and sinew, the sinews are the muscles, the cords that make your body work, to serve your turn, to keep working, to do what you want them to do, long after they are gone, so long after you're completely exhausted, so if you can force yourself to keep going, even though you've got no more energy, and so hold on when there is nothing in you, and keep going though you've got no energy left, except for the will, your strength, your internal desire, which says to your nerves, and your body, keep going, don't give up, so you need to be able to continue, if you can talk with crowds, and keep your virtue, so if you can talk with the world, if you can deal with the world around us, and not let that world corrupt you, despite the corrupt things it might do to you, or walk with kings, nor lose the common touch, so to walk with kings, to spend time with important people, but not to forget that this is not the world of these people, the world of kings is not real, and it's not the way most ordinary people feel, so to be able to empathise with the ordinary people, if neither foes, enemies, nor loving friends can hurt you, so this is saying you need to be able to not let anything that other people say hurt you, because that's for them, not for you, if all men count with you, but none too much, so if everybody can depend on you, but not too much, not over dependent, if you can fill the unforgiving minute with 60 seconds worth of distance run, so this is saying you need to give your absolute best, and the most that you can, all of the time, don't take it easy, run as hard as you can, for 60 seconds in every minute, do your best always, yours is the earth, and everything that's in it, like that you will be the owner of the earth, you will be happy, you will be a wonderful person, and which is more, and additionally, you'll be a man, my son, so this poem is defining what a man, or a woman, or a person should do, it's like a recipe of how to live our lives, so enough, if you enjoyed the video, give it a rating, subscribe to my channel, and I'll see you soon, bye for now, if by Rudyard Kipling