If by Rudyard Kipling
14 Jul 2017
A memoir from the past, a hope for the future.
Quite recently, I was reminiscing my time at my school, The Bishops Co-Ed School KLN. One of the best memories that stands out is of this poem by Rudyard Kipling. It’s called If and it is written from the perspective of a parent for their son. The parent asks their son to aspire to be a certain person. Through this poem, Kipling puts forward a very strong ideal for us to strive towards. Do read and reflect:
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 and build ’em 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!
When I read this poem after a long time, one name immediately came to mind : MS Dhoni. I read the poem again, keeping MSD in mind, and in my opinion he fits the description almost perfectly. That tells us that the poem is still relevant in today’s time and that we can still hope to have such people. What is more, we can also aspire to be such people ourselves. The poem is a call to take the highroad at all times. To be confident (yet accomodating), hard working, understanding, empathic, tolerant, humble, kind, resilient and perserve through situations. What also interests me is that Kipling has shown that highroad requires you to compromise. You cannot go to the extremes and expect to have the highroad.
So, did you like the poem? What are your thoughts? If you wish to share, comment below.
