Sunday, June 10, 2007

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 imposters 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 wornout 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 breath 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!

by Rudyard Kipling

(Artwork "The Accolade" by Edmund B. Leighton)

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9 comments:

wheatgerm said...

Never seen a blog like this

wheatgerm said...

this is great

elena maria vidal said...

Thanks.

Terry Nelson said...

I love this poem. I knew a saintly Doctor whose family used this poem on his obituary folder. He was exactly like the hero of this poem. Dr. Leroy Geis, a very saintly man.

Thank you for the poem.

elena maria vidal said...

Thank YOU, Terry. And I like the picture of the Knight. I thank God that there are some chivalrous men left in the world and especially in the Church.

a thorn in the pew said...

I love this. It made me think when I "needed" to think.

elena maria vidal said...

Me, too.

Unknown said...

This poster has been on display in a classroom in our local state university. (Put up by someone other than yours truly.) One wonders if it helped to counter some of the rubbish!

elena maria vidal said...

I think it is so important for young people to see beauty when they are trying to open their minds to knowledge.