If By Alan Ware
An Explication of the poem "If" written by:
Alan Ware Tuesday,
November 2, 1999 English II (H) 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! Rudyard Kipling’s life, style, and writing are
very interesting and
it’ll be remembered for a long period of time, much
longer into the 20th
century. On December 30, 1865, Rudyard Joseph Kipling
was born in Bombay, India.
Kipling wrote 19th century in his short
stories, novels, and poems. He used
little symbolism in his work. Kipling
wrote adventure and with a didactic mind,
which showed in his works. "The
survival of the fittest" was in
Kipling’s vision of impearilism and
British Life, and in his eyes, the love of
animals was the law of the jungle.
He mostly wrote on a defensive side. In 1936,
Kipling’s poor health was
reported throughout the whole world foreshadowing
his death. Kipling died
from a fatal hemmorrhage two days after King George. His
ashes were buried in
poets’ Corner in West Minister Abbey. Rudyard Kipling was
overall an
outstanding figure in the 19th centrury. Even though his style has
"dropped
out of modern literature" his stories and novels are still
heard today. In
the poem "If" there are thirty-two lines or verses,
and four stanzas. The
metrical pattern alternates from trochaic pentameter to
iambic pentameter
from one line to the other. The rhyme sceme is ABAB except for
the first four
lines which all rhyme. Examples of sound devices include
aliteration. There
is aliteration in line six, "Or being lied about,
don’t deal in lies", line
eight, "And yet don’t look too good, nor
talk too wise", and line twelve "And
treat those two imposters just
the same." Other signs of aliteraion are found
in lines fourteen, eighteen,
twenty-four, twenty-six, thirty, and in line
thirty-two. Another example of a
sound device is assonance. Assonance can be
found in line one, "If you can
keep your head when all about you", line
sixteen, "And stoop and build
‘em up with worn-out tools", and line eighteen,
"And risk it on one
turn of pitch- and-toss". Other signs of assonance is
seen in lines twelve,
thirteen, sixteen, twenty, twenty-seven, and
twenty-three. There is no
onomatopoeia in the poem "If". There is few signs
of literal language.
In line nine it says, "If you can dream—and not make
dreams your
master," there is a sense of being in a dream world. In line
thirteeen,
"Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and
build
‘em up with worn-out tools," a picture of someone working with old
tools
runs through the mind. In line twenty-five, "If you can talk with
crowds
and keep your virtue," this line lets the reader imagine talking to a
group
of people. In line thirty, "With sixty seconds’ worth of
distance
run," the reader imagines running down a track. In the poem
"If"
figurative language is shown rarely. In line eleven, "If you can meet
with
Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same,"
there is
personification. In line twenty-four, "Except the Will which says to
them:
"Hold on!" In his poem, Rudyard Kipling tries to set forth his
ideas
of what a real man should be like. He states many morals and advice
that people
can use in there everyday life. He tells the reader how not to
let the reader
let the real world bring you down, and not to be
self-conceited with yourself
our thoughts. The poem can apply not only to men
but also to women and the
entire world. His thoughts and morals can always be
found in any of the poems he
writes.