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If—. By Rudyard Kipling. (‘Brother Square-Toes’ —Rewards and Fairies) 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,
- Rudyard Kipling
Kipling spent the first years of his life in India,...
- Rudyard Kipling
- Summary
- Themes
- Structure and Form
- Analysis of If—
- Literary Devices
- Historical Context
- About Rudyard Kipling
‘If—’is an inspirational poem that provides advice on how one should live one’s life. The poem takes the reader through various ways in which the reader can rise above adversity that will almost certainly be thrown one’s way at some point. Throughout the poem, the speakergives the reader multiple scenarios, both positive and negative, along with a ...
In ‘If—,’ Kipling engages with themes of masculinity and success/defeat. The first of these is incredibly central to the poem. From the speaker’s point of view, there are very specific things the young listener has to do to become a man. The speaker celebrates attributes that are traditionally masculine, like strength, while also, in a contemporary...
Rudyard Kipling(Bio | Poems) separates his poem into four stanzas of equal length, all of which contain eight lines. Each stanza has a set rhyme scheme of ababcdcd, with the exception of the first stanza, which has the following rhymescheme: aaaabcbc. In terms of meter, the poem is written in iambic pentameter, with five feet consisting of an unstr...
First Stanza
The first stanza wastes no time in setting up the if-then scenario. Kipling writes, In this first “if” scenario, Kipling reminds the reader of 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. It should be noted here that the reader soon realizes the poem is really one long sentence. The poem ends on a particularly high note, which Kipling emphasizes with his use of an exclamation point. The third and four...
Second Stanza
The “if” clauses continue into the second stanza, but they are structured differently. In the first stanza, the “if” clauses were grouped in lines of two, with the exception of the final four lines. In the second stanza, the form of the first two “if” clauses is similar to the second half of the first stanza, where the lines build upon the previous lines. Kipling writes, Here, Kipling urges his reader to dream and think but not to get so caught up in dreams and thoughts that the reader loses...
Third Stanza
The third stanza starts with the “if” clause, continuing on into the first four lines. Kipling writes: The theme in these lines is very similar to the one in the last two lines of the previous stanza: if you lose everything, you must be willing to begin again. Not only that, but you must also be willing to forget about the loss and not dwell on it. The next four lines of the third stanza are also tied together. The speaker states, These lines are particularly powerful. The speaker is implorin...
Kipling makes use of several literary devices in ‘If—.’ These include but are not limited to repetition, anaphora, enjambment, and caesura. The latter is a formaldevice that occurs when the poet inserts a pause into the middle of a line. This might be done with punctuation or with the meter. For example, lines one and two of the second stanza read:...
‘If—’ was written in 1895 and first published in 1910 in “Brother Square Toes,” a chapter of Rewards and Fairies. Today, the poem’s philosophical outlook is considered to be one of the best examples of Victorian stoicism. It provides traditional advice about how to live a good life with the understanding that one has to make the most of every minut...
Rudyard Kipling(Bio | Poems) was born in Bombay, India, in December of 1865. As a boy, he took pleasure in the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson(Bio | Poems) and Wilkie Collins. He was around eleven years old when he first started writing.Kipling’s best-known work, The Jungle Book, was published in the late 1890s. Kipling’s life took a tragic turn in the...
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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!
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The best Dulce et Decorum Est study guide on the planet. The fastest way to understand the poem's meaning, themes, form, rhyme scheme, meter, and poetic devices.
His newly rural environs began to inform his poetry and, after an eight year silence, he published This Fine Day (1979) which is filled with nature poems and poems of the Fife countryside and is, in fact, Bold’s last full collection in English.
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‘Friends’ by Abbie Farwell Brown describes the way that nature, specifically the Sky, Wind, and Sun can provide comfort if one is willing to let them. The poem begins with the speaker describing how she finds joy and peace in equal measure out in nature.
