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Kipling: 'If–' and Other Poems
This pocket-sized selection of Rudyard Kipling’s verse contains not only his classic "If-", but also "Tommy," "The Way Through the Woods," "Recessional," "Boots," "The Female of the Species," "Mandalay," "Gunga Din," "The Young British Soldier," and many more of Kipling’s greatest poems.
- GenresPoetry
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1965
About the author
Rudyard Kipling
7,774 books3,858 followersJoseph Rudyard Kipling was a journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist.
Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901), and many short stories, including The Man Who Would Be King (1888). His poems include Mandalay (1890), Gunga Din (1890), The Gods of the Copybook Headings (1919), The White Man's Burden (1899), and If— (1910). He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story; his children's books are classics of children's literature; and one critic described his work as exhibiting "a versatile and luminous narrative gift".
Kipling was one of the most popular writers in the United Kingdom, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Henry James said: "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius (as distinct from fine intelligence) that I have ever known." In 1907, at the age of 41, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English-language writer to receive the prize, and its youngest recipient to date. He was also sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and on several occasions for a knighthood, both of which he declined.
Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907 "in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author."
Kipling kept writing until the early 1930s, but at a slower pace and with much less success than before. On the night of 12 January 1936, Kipling suffered a haemorrhage in his small intestine. He underwent surgery, but died less than a week later on 18 January 1936 at the age of 70 of a perforated duodenal ulcer. Kipling's death had in fact previously been incorrectly announced in a magazine, to which he wrote, "I've just read that I am dead. Don't forget to delete me from your list of subscribers."
Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901), and many short stories, including The Man Who Would Be King (1888). His poems include Mandalay (1890), Gunga Din (1890), The Gods of the Copybook Headings (1919), The White Man's Burden (1899), and If— (1910). He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story; his children's books are classics of children's literature; and one critic described his work as exhibiting "a versatile and luminous narrative gift".
Kipling was one of the most popular writers in the United Kingdom, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Henry James said: "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius (as distinct from fine intelligence) that I have ever known." In 1907, at the age of 41, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English-language writer to receive the prize, and its youngest recipient to date. He was also sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and on several occasions for a knighthood, both of which he declined.
Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907 "in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author."
Kipling kept writing until the early 1930s, but at a slower pace and with much less success than before. On the night of 12 January 1936, Kipling suffered a haemorrhage in his small intestine. He underwent surgery, but died less than a week later on 18 January 1936 at the age of 70 of a perforated duodenal ulcer. Kipling's death had in fact previously been incorrectly announced in a magazine, to which he wrote, "I've just read that I am dead. Don't forget to delete me from your list of subscribers."
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 24, 2024
I read the French translation of this poem ('Si' in French) when I was twelve; I didn't see its depth. After reading the book on M.K Gandhi's wife, I returned to the English version of this poem and read Kipling's biography, particularly his years as a functionary in British India. Then I understood the importance of this legendary poem that has served as the 'mantra' of many compassionate humans.
I shall try my best to explain.
The single theme that unifies this poem's four exceptional blocks is the notion of equanimity, the unique humane quality that Patanjali refers to as 'tapa' in his sutras, a collection of verses I read during my travels in India and brought back with me to France. While reading about Kastur Gandhi's hand behind M.K Gandhi's work, I saw the role of her equanimity in his development.
This woman, who barely read and wrote, knew equanimity's value by her instincts; her wisdom resonates with Kipling's verses:
- while being lied about, don't give into lies;
- while being hated, don't give into hating;
- meet with triumph and disaster, and treat the two imposters the same;
- watch the things you gave your life to break, never breathe a word about your loss, build them up with your worn-out tools;
- hold on, when there's nothing to hold onto, except for your will that asks you to hold on;
- neither your foes nor your loving friends could hurt you;
- fill that unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run...
I asked: how a human being, an emotional creature, can reach this equanimity?
The book Bhagwat Geeta, interpreted by Gandhi, gave me the answer: 'value the work, not its results'.
I shall try my best to explain.
The single theme that unifies this poem's four exceptional blocks is the notion of equanimity, the unique humane quality that Patanjali refers to as 'tapa' in his sutras, a collection of verses I read during my travels in India and brought back with me to France. While reading about Kastur Gandhi's hand behind M.K Gandhi's work, I saw the role of her equanimity in his development.
This woman, who barely read and wrote, knew equanimity's value by her instincts; her wisdom resonates with Kipling's verses:
- while being lied about, don't give into lies;
- while being hated, don't give into hating;
- meet with triumph and disaster, and treat the two imposters the same;
- watch the things you gave your life to break, never breathe a word about your loss, build them up with your worn-out tools;
- hold on, when there's nothing to hold onto, except for your will that asks you to hold on;
- neither your foes nor your loving friends could hurt you;
- fill that unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run...
I asked: how a human being, an emotional creature, can reach this equanimity?
The book Bhagwat Geeta, interpreted by Gandhi, gave me the answer: 'value the work, not its results'.
August 22, 2020
The 5 stars are only for the “If” poem
January 31, 2026
If by Rudyard Kipling – one of the most popular poems and one of Realini’s Top 100 Favorite Poems http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u...
10 out of 10
There are a few ways to interpret, enjoy or contest If and one hilarious perspective belongs to a stand-up comedian, albeit I do not know his name alas, but you can have his take, or at least what I could make of it…the ingenious performer looks at the lines ‘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…’ and has an original conclusion and says that you should have your head examined, however different he will phrase it.
And the stand-up artist does have a point, for there is so much lunacy in the world that ‘being so sure of one self’ can be both reason to cheer – and we could refer to the ultimate expert on the matter, Nathaniel Branden, author of the life-changing The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/06/s... - and a sign of madness, as exemplified by the MAGA crowd in the Divided States of America, once the symbol of greatness, power, intrepid spirit, the Man that If refers to if you will, and now a land where we can all find our demise, for if they fail, we are all doomed to live in a Chinese Matrix, perhaps with some Russian characteristics…
There is the insurrectionist that takes down the Capitol Hill and does not doubt that he ‘can trust himself’ when in fact he should and see a doctor soon, then follow the medication and since that will not work (‘this is mean man’, as one line of dialogue in Payback, with Mel Gibson and maybe in the earlier version would have it, when the hero is coming for the seventy thousand that had been taken away from him, he shoots in the suitcases that are covered with some expensive alligator skin [was it alligator, I wonder] and then the character played by James Coburn is annoyed by the insult) seek further help by becoming a patient in an institution that has fellows like him rambling, such as the republican aisle of Congress.
Trump would be the epitome of what could go wrong when you take If to the wrong extreme – but before going there, let us just say briefly that yes, the main significance that Kipling had in mind is not this jocular, comedy banter, but the opposite, he meant that we should be valiant, strong, munificent, resilient and many or all the other character strengths (let us still count more, for it helps to remember, perhaps even try one or two for measure, courage, kindness, love, transcendence, temperance, forgiveness, humility, patience, justice, citizenship, leadership, wisdom, curiosity, perspective, appreciation of excellence and beauty and you find the whole set by googling, what else, for Martin Seligman, co-founder of positive psychology and the studies he made, and you can assess your own standing)
The fool is worshipped by about seventy million Ericans – this comes from Lake Wobegon Days, where it is argued that America should have been called Erica, since they owe much more to Eric of Norway than to Amerigo Vespucci, and there is another key idea there, the fact that most people think themselves better than the average, at driving, reading, when it is not possible and we have the so-called Lake Wobegon Effect http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/08/l...
Donald Trump is not the archetype of the man with self-esteem, on the contrary, he has Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and the aforementioned Lake Wobegon Effect in the extreme, he does not see himself better than average, he is better than anyone else at…everything, and the Mirthful Perspective on Kipling’s If is personified by this Mad Man, who looks around and ‘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…’ has that galactic laughter associated with the self-proclaimed ‘very stable genius’ , a boast than in itself proves what an extreme mental case this is, he has done so much harm and yet he ‘keeps his head’ in that parallel universe…
This is a great disappointment and there is serious chagrin to have to witness all this Fall of the Erican Model, especially for people like me, who had had to live under a communist regime brought in by the Soviet Union – which another idiot, Kremlin Shorty, for dubious reasons praised for his intelligence (just because he had been as a cunning killer, some appear to think that must be clever, wise, smart, which it is not) tries now to reassemble, by invading Ukraine and then take other moves, Alhamdulillah, it has failed so far, though he keeps mentioning the nuclear weapons and if he does have cancer, he may wish to go to Infinity and Beyond with all of us attached to his departing rocket and use the infamous ‘Apres Moi, le Deluge’
I took part in the Romanian Revolution http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... with the hope that this land would be more like America aka Erica and cut down the time difference – there was that joke we had, if the end of the world comes, the American and Russian (always Putin) presidents will appear in the media and say ‘do not worry, we have space ships and we will leave the earth, and at the same time ours shows on television and says, ‘do not worry, we are anyway one hundred years behind’- which used to be enormous in the communist days, but while on economic, financial, per capita spending and so many other indices we are way in the past, there is hope, for looking at IQ, the leader we have – magnificent Klaus Werner Johannis – we are eons ahead.
The Republicans in America have been through an incredible transformation, and if the Darwin law speaks of evolution, we have here a return of man to the ape stage, close on one hundred million humans are not able to make a basic analysis, to show the elementary capacity of an intelligent being, to see an enemy – it was fight or flight that took us were we are, to some extent, but procrastination, indulgence have dumbed the senses and the ability to identify danger – and they are just about as smart as an orangutan, and incidentally, Bill Maher has said that Trump comes from that species…
To try and end on a more positive note, I think that If works well here –let me fall into the same trap and narcissistic behavior – for in spite of the fact that I am quite banal and belong to the crowd surrounding the Son in Kipling’s If, there has been a mysterious fortune in that I had been the lover of Miss Romania, took part in the Revolution, well, maybe it was in part a coup d’etat, but I was heroic nonetheless, and here is the link to prove it, again http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
10 out of 10
There are a few ways to interpret, enjoy or contest If and one hilarious perspective belongs to a stand-up comedian, albeit I do not know his name alas, but you can have his take, or at least what I could make of it…the ingenious performer looks at the lines ‘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…’ and has an original conclusion and says that you should have your head examined, however different he will phrase it.
And the stand-up artist does have a point, for there is so much lunacy in the world that ‘being so sure of one self’ can be both reason to cheer – and we could refer to the ultimate expert on the matter, Nathaniel Branden, author of the life-changing The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/06/s... - and a sign of madness, as exemplified by the MAGA crowd in the Divided States of America, once the symbol of greatness, power, intrepid spirit, the Man that If refers to if you will, and now a land where we can all find our demise, for if they fail, we are all doomed to live in a Chinese Matrix, perhaps with some Russian characteristics…
There is the insurrectionist that takes down the Capitol Hill and does not doubt that he ‘can trust himself’ when in fact he should and see a doctor soon, then follow the medication and since that will not work (‘this is mean man’, as one line of dialogue in Payback, with Mel Gibson and maybe in the earlier version would have it, when the hero is coming for the seventy thousand that had been taken away from him, he shoots in the suitcases that are covered with some expensive alligator skin [was it alligator, I wonder] and then the character played by James Coburn is annoyed by the insult) seek further help by becoming a patient in an institution that has fellows like him rambling, such as the republican aisle of Congress.
Trump would be the epitome of what could go wrong when you take If to the wrong extreme – but before going there, let us just say briefly that yes, the main significance that Kipling had in mind is not this jocular, comedy banter, but the opposite, he meant that we should be valiant, strong, munificent, resilient and many or all the other character strengths (let us still count more, for it helps to remember, perhaps even try one or two for measure, courage, kindness, love, transcendence, temperance, forgiveness, humility, patience, justice, citizenship, leadership, wisdom, curiosity, perspective, appreciation of excellence and beauty and you find the whole set by googling, what else, for Martin Seligman, co-founder of positive psychology and the studies he made, and you can assess your own standing)
The fool is worshipped by about seventy million Ericans – this comes from Lake Wobegon Days, where it is argued that America should have been called Erica, since they owe much more to Eric of Norway than to Amerigo Vespucci, and there is another key idea there, the fact that most people think themselves better than the average, at driving, reading, when it is not possible and we have the so-called Lake Wobegon Effect http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/08/l...
Donald Trump is not the archetype of the man with self-esteem, on the contrary, he has Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and the aforementioned Lake Wobegon Effect in the extreme, he does not see himself better than average, he is better than anyone else at…everything, and the Mirthful Perspective on Kipling’s If is personified by this Mad Man, who looks around and ‘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…’ has that galactic laughter associated with the self-proclaimed ‘very stable genius’ , a boast than in itself proves what an extreme mental case this is, he has done so much harm and yet he ‘keeps his head’ in that parallel universe…
This is a great disappointment and there is serious chagrin to have to witness all this Fall of the Erican Model, especially for people like me, who had had to live under a communist regime brought in by the Soviet Union – which another idiot, Kremlin Shorty, for dubious reasons praised for his intelligence (just because he had been as a cunning killer, some appear to think that must be clever, wise, smart, which it is not) tries now to reassemble, by invading Ukraine and then take other moves, Alhamdulillah, it has failed so far, though he keeps mentioning the nuclear weapons and if he does have cancer, he may wish to go to Infinity and Beyond with all of us attached to his departing rocket and use the infamous ‘Apres Moi, le Deluge’
I took part in the Romanian Revolution http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... with the hope that this land would be more like America aka Erica and cut down the time difference – there was that joke we had, if the end of the world comes, the American and Russian (always Putin) presidents will appear in the media and say ‘do not worry, we have space ships and we will leave the earth, and at the same time ours shows on television and says, ‘do not worry, we are anyway one hundred years behind’- which used to be enormous in the communist days, but while on economic, financial, per capita spending and so many other indices we are way in the past, there is hope, for looking at IQ, the leader we have – magnificent Klaus Werner Johannis – we are eons ahead.
The Republicans in America have been through an incredible transformation, and if the Darwin law speaks of evolution, we have here a return of man to the ape stage, close on one hundred million humans are not able to make a basic analysis, to show the elementary capacity of an intelligent being, to see an enemy – it was fight or flight that took us were we are, to some extent, but procrastination, indulgence have dumbed the senses and the ability to identify danger – and they are just about as smart as an orangutan, and incidentally, Bill Maher has said that Trump comes from that species…
To try and end on a more positive note, I think that If works well here –let me fall into the same trap and narcissistic behavior – for in spite of the fact that I am quite banal and belong to the crowd surrounding the Son in Kipling’s If, there has been a mysterious fortune in that I had been the lover of Miss Romania, took part in the Revolution, well, maybe it was in part a coup d’etat, but I was heroic nonetheless, and here is the link to prove it, again http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
February 17, 2020
2.5*
I was not a fan of the first half of this collection as the poems are very long and story like and I found them uninteresting. The second half was a lot more lyrical which I enjoyed (especially ‘If-‘).
I was not a fan of the first half of this collection as the poems are very long and story like and I found them uninteresting. The second half was a lot more lyrical which I enjoyed (especially ‘If-‘).
Read
January 14, 2021'If' is one of my favourite poems. I first read it when my mother shared it with me during an extraordinarily difficult time in my life, and I burst into tears when I finished reading it. There are so many great little lessons in this short poem.
August 16, 2021
Only read If- mind you.
August 8, 2022
I was surprised by how many poems I am familiar with.
December 4, 2022
I love some Kipling and some is a bit more meh, this collection of poems were no different.
Read
December 31, 2024just wanted to read Boots lowks
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews