Analysis of If
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
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 impostors 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 worn-out 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 breathe 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!
Scheme | AAAABCBC DEDEFGFG HIHIFXAX AJAJXFXF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111111011 1101010111 11110111111 1101011101 111101110110 1101011101 11010111110 0111111111 11110111110 1111011111 11111100010 0111010101 11111101110 1011110111 11011111110 0101111111 11111111110 0111111101 01010111010 0101010111 1111110101 1111110111 01111111001 0101111111 11111101110 1111110101 11011101111 1111111111 11110001010 1101011101 1101010101 0111110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,478 |
Words | 285 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 281 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 71 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 1:27 min read
- 8,147 Views
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"If" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33247/if>.
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