If by Rudyard Kipling

 

If 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 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!

Answer the following questions in 15-20 words:

(a) What should you do when all men doubt you?

Answer:  Keeping the head cool makes us think wisely to face those tough situations, and ultimately a solution comes out.

(b) “If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue.” What do you understand by “If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue.”?

Answer: We should stay in touch with people from every class of the society. We should be able to talk with common mass without losing our virtue or moral values

(c) What is meant by “the unforgiving minute” in the poem?

Answer: Time (minute) is here called unforgiving , as it waits for none and doesn’t forgive him who wastes it. We should utilize every minute of our life in productive work.

(d) What does “pitch and toss” refer to in the poem?

Answer: We should be able to accumulate all we have and take a risk in one turn of the game of pitch-and-toss. We may lose the game and all our possessions. But we have to stay calm without uttering a word about that loss and rebuild it from the beginning.

(e) How does Kipling present hopes and fears?

Answer: The poet emphasizes that one should be always optimistic in the life. Fears always impose a threat to his progress but he must move ahead confidently.

3. Answer the following questions in 30-40 words each:

(a) Why does the poet say that triumph and disaster are two imposters?

Answer: People become too happy in success and forget their duty at hand. We may also get too complacent or proud at a small success, reducing our chances to reach higher goals. Again, at bad times, if we are too grieved, we may lose our faith and confidence. In both cases, our regular course of work is hampered. That is why the poet calls triumph and disaster ‘two impostors’.

(b) What is expected of a perfect man when he loses all that he has achieved or gained?

Answer: He must stay calm without uttering a word about that loss and rebuild it from the beginning. The poet talks about the capability of taking big risks to achieve much greater success and keeping quiet even if we lose the bet. This is yet another aspect of our mental toughness that we need to possess.

(c) “And never breath a word about your loss”. Elucidate.

Answer: Even after losing everything one has achieved in the life, he must not express his disappointment publicly. Rather he must begin again with zeal and enthusiasm. He must keep faith in himself and not to seek words of sympathy from others.

(d) What essential qualities of a true leader are highlighted in the poem?

Answer: Leaders need to be worthy of trust; they also need to be able to understand why others might be doubtful and be able to convince those doubters that they are someone who can be trusted.

(Leaders tell the truth and don't worry about it if they are the subject of lies. Leaders don't return hatred when they are hated by others. Leaders are able to determine what they feel is the right way and commit to it, working to achieve the goal when others have given up, keeping at it despite difficulties and disappointments, without complaint or bitterness, and without making oneself into a martyr.)

Answer the following questions in 150 words each:

(a) What feelings does the poem awaken in you? How do your feelings connect with those of the poet?

Answer: The strong emphasis on balance in “If” possibly reflects an oriental influence on Kipling’s own life philosophy, as a basic teaching of Buddhism is the quest for what is known as the Middle Way—a quest for balance in the search for spiritual enlightenment.

Kipling’s thoughts on action without desire, equanimity, humility, and uprightness also echo Lord Krishna’s description of a man of steady wisdom in The Bhagavad Gita. In fact, many of the ideas expressed in the poem directly reflect Lord Krishna’s message of Nishkama Karma to Arjuna.

The entire third stanza takes the reader’s mind to The Old Man and the Sea, that masterpiece of honour in struggle, defeat, and death, where at the end of the story Hemingway mentions, “A man is not made for defeat…a man can be destroyed but not defeated.” “Build ’em up with worn-out tools” surely brings up the image of Santiago making a new harpoon by strapping his knife to the end of an oar to help ward off the line of sharks.

 

(b) The poem concludes with ‘you’ll be a man’. What kind of a man is implied here?

Answer: The poem concludes with an assertion that if a man follows the ideal qualities of a true leader, which are articulated at various points of the poem, he will become an exemplary human being.

A real leader is humble yet unservile, is passionate yet prudent, understanding yet detached. He treats everyone equally and impartially. He is at home with the nobles as well as with the rustic. He is not harmed by the words and deeds of his friends or his foes. He is neither hostile to his enemies nor partial to his friends. He tirelessly strives every moment of his life to realise the goals of his life. Such a perfect man will lack nothing in the world and will be the monarch of all he surveys.

(c) Comment on the mood and tone of the poem.

Answer: The poem ‘If’ can be viewed as a set of guidelines on how to live and act with integrity and right values such that one becomes the ideal human. Each of the four stanzas deals with different life situations and the best way to act during them.  The poem If does not have a conspicuous physical setting. However, after reading the poem one can visualize a scene in which a father is speaking to his son and giving him the most valuable life lesson on how to become a complete man. The token of personal philosophy and wisdom which the father imparts to his son has universal validity.