IF by Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling was born in India in 1865 and educated in England but returned to India in 1882. A decade later, Kipling married Caroline Balestier and settled in Brattleboro, Vermont, with the Indian surrounding he wrote The Jungle Book (1894), among a host of other works that made him hugely successful. Kipling was the recipient of the 1907 Nobel Prize in Literature. He died in 1936.
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!
Summary of the poem
Poem analysis
1st stanza:
The poem starts as an
eye opener. The
first “if” reminds the reader about the importance of maintaining a level head
even when those around the reader do not have one and are blaming the situation
on the reader. The poet advises the readers to stay brave and clear in our
thinking even if others are not agree with us. We should trust us when others
don’t. Also the speaker
requests us to have patience and not to say lies even if others say wrong about
us, also not to hate others even they hate. At the end he says not to boost and
not to be too good nor too bad. For no
one can be too good till the end.
“If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, /But make allowance for their doubting too…”
Here,
the speaker stresses that all should have self – trust and ability to
understand the emotional feelings and inner thoughts of others, sometimes the
understanding of ones feelings does not mean they will agree with you.
"If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies",
In these lines, the speaker tells the reader to have patience. Also he says that even if he or she is lied about, he or she should not go to extreme lever of a liar. There is a limit for everything. If one goes beyond the limit then he or she would face the consequences for his sin.
In the second stanza the poet talks about dreaming but not allowing those dreams hinder your thinking and action. The poem explains how to deal both sides of your triumph and disaster, how to take easy steps when other people twist your truth into lies. The poet shows the changing nature of success. The success never stays for a long time nor does disaster. So the winner should not float too much on either triumph or disaster for they will soon vanish from us. Therefore we must endure our words when it would get twisted by dishonest and harmful society for its own purpose.
In the third stanza IF clause continues to show the truth of life. It says about determination, If you lose everything in life, you must start again with strong determination. In the same way one should not think about what he or she lost for they cannot get it back again. The speaker is suggesting the readers to take it with patience both physical and emotional impossible situations in the same will power. “Will” is a strong word used here by Kipling, he wanted to emphasize the resilience of the human spirit here by making it a super power that is separated from the person who possess it.
In the 4th stanza All “IFs “is finally revealed how to look others. The poet says that it should not matter with whom the reader is walking, he or she needs to treat the lowest of low and the highest in society exactly the same with kindness. Kipling is reminding his reader that it is important to come back from disappointment or pain. One must not think and live on those who hate or the hurt. Finally the poet gives the reader his final piece of advice. He advices his readers not to give up our efforts or waste single second of life. If you are given a minute make sure you use all sixty seconds usefully to shine in life. Finally the last two lines expresses the outcome. If one follows all these then the world is on his fingertips.
In short this is a very inspirational poem that give ample advices on how one should live one’s life. The poem takes the readers through various situations of life where the reader could learn the tactics of life to have a perfect life.
Voice of the poem
The
poem is a personal and emotional and thought provoking which is meant to
motivate its readers. The poet is very balanced between emotions and feelings.
He could see and understands the difficulties that we must face in life. He
knows the reality of life that there will be ups and downs, so the poet advices
not to get carried away with the achievements but remain calm and endure the
negative vibrations too.
Literary devices:
Personification
Triumph and Disaster are
termed as ‘two impostors’. The poet personifies them and they become two
different characters of life. They often enter and exists in our lives. How do
we react to those two visitors molds our personalities.
Kipling says metaphorically,
the feeling of victory and its joy is it gives is Triumph. Disaster is when you feel defeated and ruined.
But they are not the same as they stands for antithetical extremes.
They are opposite to each other but according to the poet they ruin one’s life
equally if they truly believe those two impostors. But the poet believes that one should remain
calm and balanced controlled during these two extreme emotions, for this is the
best way to learn to be mature.
Anaphora
Repetition of the word IF at the beginning of
the lines, shows that the poet without a break continues his ideas with the
maturity. The poem makes the progress with the IF and creates a list of
conditions which are sometime possible in life and some of the ideas creates
doubts whether they are possible practically.
Antithesis
“We
should wait and not be tired by waiting” every ideas have
an opposite thoughts. “Being lied
about, not deal in lies” “triumph and
Disaster”. These ideas show extreme
opposition, but they are balanced to create a sense of both positive and
negative vibrations.
Form and structure
The ending part of the poem where the speaker says, “you’ll be a man, my
son!’ it could be an anticlimax which is quite dull then what the
readers were expecting. But the poem
shows that it take great maturity and courage to be a man or woman. He has given all the advices for a person to
become matured strong in their character.
The poet teaches us to be successful and lead a happy and content life.
The poem is separated into three octaves (8 line stanzas), with an ABABCDCD rhyme. The meter is iambic pentameter with five stressed and unstressed syllable
The slight different rhythm pattern gives a great
message to the readers that they should stay brave and strong when their
situations go out of their control.
Enjambment
“risk
it all in one pitch and toss, and lose’ the poet uses metaphor of gambling
game where the money plays a vital part.
He suggests that one should not crave for money or success to lose and
ready to take extreme risks in life. But the bottom line is one could lose the
money to gain the life and self-respect.
The whole poem is a single sentence as the ideas of
the poet are interconnected and communicating with the readers to go towards a
successful life.
Themes to think in this poem
Maturity - The poet says maturity comes when a person realizes himself or herself.
Individualism – IF a person takes his own challenges and stay strong to face it.
Success - It has no limit. But it could change the phases of life for a person. It could give a person a positive self-confident and sometime it could lead to over ambitious.
The Purpose of life is to be happy and share the happiness with all.
Happiness depends on the satisfaction of a person. The poet advises the readers the meaning of happiness with the list of conditions.
Youth can mislead a person and hinders his inward growth. As a father the poet has given valuable suggestions to his son as he too has crossed the period of youth.
Willpower is a strong word which can make a person to face the challenges of the world so he could build his dream and be an inspiration to many.
Assonance
The repetition of the same sound in words close to each other.
Ex: “yet don’t
look too good nor talk too wise”
Metaphor words used to make comparison between two different things.
Ex: “if you can meet
with triumph”
truth
and disaster are compared to two impostors.
Personification: Attributing human characters to non-human objects.
“If you can dream and not make dreams your master” dreams act like master. Success denotes “Triumph and it can make a person confident and failure stands for Disaster which could ruin a future of a person. Minute stands for unforgiving time which wait for none. “Will” it is Human Power and strength.
Symbolism words which has deep
meaning.
“Risk it on one turn of
pitch and toss is a game. Crowd stands for common people. King for important people.
The first theme would be growing up and becoming a man. It discusses about maturing into manhood, growing up and becoming wiser.
Another theme in this poem is righteousness rather than being self-righteous. People who are striving to be righteous should not be self-centered.
The poem is a thought provoking one which advises each of us grow up and become a man, how to be righteous rather than being self – righteous.
Comments
Post a Comment