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An analysis of Rudyard Kipling's poem "If" iGCSE LEVEL 9
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An analysis of Rudyard Kipling's poem "If" - level 9
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IF by Rudyard KiplingiGCSE English Literature
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, * anaphora
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise: * the
imperative adds force
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 *
personification
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, * this
generic term is used
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch, to refer
to ordinary (‘common’)
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, people
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, * Biblical
allusion; the meek shall
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son! inherit the
earth
Voice
The poem is in the form of a direct address. The speaker uses the second person
pronoun, ‘you’ throughout the poem. ‘You’ can be either singular or plural and
therefore the poem is simultaneously a personal address by a father to his son,
and same time a general address to every reader. It has a universal appeal. Being
addressed directly helps to maintain the reader’s attention as it evokes a curiosity
as to where this advice is leading. “If“ we meet the criteria of the advice
advocated what is it that we will achieve or attain?
The voice is a motivational and didactic and in the form of a dramatic monologue.
A father, who is the narrator of the poem, is explaining different personality traits
to his son to adapt them in order to be a virtuous and humble man.
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