Friday, January 12, 2007

A poem from down memory Lane

As a part of the ICSE syllabus that I studied, there was a full book of poems that we studied during class X. One of my favorite poems out of that book, one that I understood and appreciated at that age, and one that makes sense even at this point of time in my life, was the poem "IF" by Rudyard Kipling.

Our English teachers Mrs.Rebeiro did full justice to that poem when we studied it at school.

This is how it goes:

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!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Rekha, sawa ur blog o the poem.Very true!

All the best to you

Love
Jau

Rekha said...

Hey Jau anna.. Didnt know u were reading my blog. Glad to see that. :)

Unknown said...

Hi Rekha Thanks, for u hav ended my long search for this poem which was my all time fav

All the best n
May all ur dreams come true