If

This poem was mentioned in Michael Dirda’s book of essays, Classics for Pleasure. Since I enjoyed Kipling’s masterpiece Kim tremendously and am willing to forgive the man for being a product of his time, I hunted it down on the Internet and reproduce it here.


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!


Nice. Wish someone had shown that to me when I was thirteen or so.

Anyway, thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Dirda’s thoughts on the classics of literature. Some you’ve heard of, some you haven’t. The two main takeaways I got were the authors Edward Gorey and Italo Calvino. There’s a strange story called “The Insect God” of Gorey’s I want to seek out. And Calvino has been compared to Borges, so I must check out his work, particularly The Baron in the Trees, Cosmicomics, and The Castle of Crossed Destinies. According to Dirda, The Castle is about a group of travelers who somehow all fall mute and must communicate through the use of Tarot Cards. Their tales become intertwined and somehow dependent on each other. That setup alone makes me want to pick up this book and read it next.