A POEM BY RUDYARD KIPLING

 

                A POEM BY RUDYARD KIPLING

            Rudyard Kipling was an English journalist, novelist, poet and short -story writer.

            He was born in Mumbai (British India) on 30 December 1865 and passed away -in London (United Kingdom) on 18 Jan 1936.

            He wrote a lot which made him popular not only in India but  in many other countries.

             He was the first English-language writer who was  awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907.

            Two of his famous  compositions are : (i) The Jungle Book, and a poem titled “IF” which mentions a number of qualities which man should acquire.

            The poem  “IF” is a big which looks like one long sentence written “ as  a tribute to  Leander Starr Jameson (1853-1917), a  Scottish physician , colonial administrator, and key figure in British imperialism. “

            The following very popular  line :

            “Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet” was written by Rudyard Kipling.

            Given below is the poem : ‘IF’.

            ‘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!”

                                    *****

G. R. Kanwal

22 June 2026