Son You´Ll Be a Man

If you can keep your head when all about you
are loosing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
but makeallowance of 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 giveway 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 notmake 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 truthyou've spoken
twisted by knives to make a trap for fools,
or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
and stop and buid them up with worn-outtools.

If you can make a heap of all your winnings
and risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss
and lose, and start again at your beginnings
andnever breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your nerve and sinew
to serve your turn long after they're gone,
and so hold on when thereis 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 losethe 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 unforgivingminute
with sixty seconds worth of a distance run,
yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
and - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son.