If Poem

If-
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trist yourself when all men doubt you,
But makeallowance 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 wayto hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor walk too wise:

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not makethoughts 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 spokenTwisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:

If youcan 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 wordabout 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 inyou
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 sixtyseconds’ 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!

Rudyard Kipling (1865 – 1936)