If—

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"If—" is a poem by Rudyard Kipling. It was written in 1895; the poem was first published in the Brother Square Toes chapter of Rewards and Fairies, Kipling's 1910 collection of short stories and poems. Like William Ernest Henley's Invictus, it is a memorable evocation of Victorian stoicism and the "stiff upper lip" that popular culture has made into a traditional British virtue. Its status is both confirmed by the number of parodies it has inspired, and by the widespread popularity it still draws amongst Britons (it was voted Britain's favourite poem in a 1995 BBC opinion poll).

According to Kipling in his biography Something of Myself (1937), the poem was inspired by Dr Leander Starr Jameson, who in 1895 led a raid by British forces against the Boers in South Africa, subsequently called the Jameson Raid. [1] This defeat increased the tensions that ultimately led to the Second Boer War. The British press, however, portrayed Jameson as a hero in the middle of the disaster, and the actual defeat as a British victory.

1 Reaction to the poem
2 References to the poem
3 Translation
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Reaction to the poem

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!

"If—" holds the world record as the poem reprinted in more anthologies than any other. Kipling himself noted in Something of Myself that the poem had been "printed as cards to hang up in offices and bedrooms; illuminated text-wise and anthologised to weariness".^[1]

Despite the poem's immense popularity many critics deride "If—" as little more than doggerel and a list of aphorisms strung together. T. S. Eliot used it to argue that Kipling was only a versifier and not a real poet. George Orwell—an ambivalent admirer of Kipling's work who hated the poet's politics—compared people who only knew "If—" "and some of his more sententious poems", to Colonel Blimp.^[2]

[edit] References to the poem

The most famous reference to this poem is the inscription of the lines "If you can meet with triumph and disaster / And treat those two imposters just the same" above the entryway to Centre Court at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, Wimbledon, London. The original version of this inscription appears briefly in Alfred Hitchcock's film Strangers on a Train, with the "two imposters" line showing symbolically during a conversation before the final match, even though the character of Guy Haines is supposed to be playing tennis in New England.

Another well-known popular culture reference to the poem occurs in the Francis Ford Coppola film, Apocalypse Now. The first three lines of the poem are quoted by the Dennis Hopper character, a photojournalist, immediately before quoting from the T.S. Eliot poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.

The poem has had numerous television and film references, as in The Simpsons episode "Old Money" in which Grandpa Simpson quotes the lines pertaining "a game of pitch and toss" and the final line, "you'll be a man, my son." Homer's response is, "You'll be a bonehead!". It also features in the 2001 British Film "Mike Basset: England Manager", where Mike Basset recites the poem during a press conference.

The poem is a plot element in the episode "Matthew 5:6" of the Showtime TV series Brotherhood.

In a retelling of the origin of The Flash from the comic book Secret Origins, the poem serves as an important plot point. In the story, The Flash, in his every day identity of Wally West, sees the poem (as embodied by his uncle) as the kind of man he would like to be. His own life, however, has been beset by a series of misfortunes and tragedies. Because of this he sees himself as a failure, and unable to live up to the path that the poem has laid before him. The final shot of the story, is split between a reprint of the poem and a depressed Wally West unable to look at the pictures of his life scattered on the floor.

This poem is also referenced in the movie White Squall when the boys are training on the boat.

The poem also plays a role and is in parts quoted in Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones novel Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.

A reference to If can be found in the popular band Brand New's first single, "Sowing Season (Yeah)," from the album "The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me". The lyrics include the second half of the second verse of the poem.

Benjamin Zephaniah created his own version of Kipling's poem, entitled 'What If', which is included in his 2001 collection 'Too Black, Too Strong.'

At the public memorial service of Australia media mogul and billionaire Kerry Packer AC (17 December 1937 – 26 December 2005), Russel Crowe read "If" on behalf of Kerry Packers daughter Gretel (born 1966).

The final four lines of the poem are shown tacked to the door of Quenton Cassidy's room in John L. Parker Jr.'s novel Once a Runner. A tacked reply from Cassidy reads, "Rudyard Kipling was a 4:30 miler." This is meant as an insult to Kipling.

"If" was also Ayn Rand´s favourite poem.

The last four lines of the second stanza can be found in the band Brand New's "Sowing Season".

[edit] Translation

"If" has been translated into a multitude of languages. In 1937 Kipling mentions "seven-and-twenty tongues". One worthy of note is a translation into Burmese language, the mother tongue of the country where the city of another of Kipling´s masterpiece "Mandalay" is located. It was translated by Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi.

Some translations are: