The correct title of this article is If— . It appears incorrectly here due to technical restrictions.

"If—" is a notable poem by Rudyard Kipling. It was written in 1895; the poem was first published in the Brother Square Toes chapter of Rewards and Fairies, Kipling's 1910 collection of short stories and poems. Like William Ernest Henley's Invictus, it is a memorable evocation of Victorian stoicism and the "stiff upper lip" that popular culture has made into a traditional British virtue. Its status is both confirmed by the number of parodies it has inspired, and by the widespread popularity it still draws amongst Britons (in 1995, it was voted Britain's favourite poem in a BBC opinion poll). Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling (December 30, 1865 – January 18, 1936) was a British author and poet, born in India. ... 1895 (MDCCCXCV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... -1... William Ernest Henley (August 23, 1849 - July 11, 1903) was a British poet, critic and editor. ... Invictus is a short poem by the British poet William Ernest Henley, which is the source of a number of familiar clichés and quotations. ... Queen Victoria (shown here on the morning of her Accession to the Throne, 20 June 1837) gave her name to the historic era The Victorian era of Great Britain is considered the height of the British industrial revolution and the apex of the British Empire. ... A restored Stoa in Athens. ... Stiff Upper Lip is a 2000 (see 2000 in music) hard rock album by Australian band AC/DC. The album was recorded at The Warehouse Studio in Vancouver, British Columbia and mastered at Sterling Sound in New York City. ... Popular culture, or pop culture, is the vernacular (peoples) culture that prevails in any given society. ... (Greek αρετη; Latin virtus) Virtue is moral excellence of a man or a woman. ... In contemporary usage, parody is a form of satire that imitates another work of art in order to ridicule it. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Corporate logo of the British Broadcasting Corporation. ...

According to Kipling in his autobiography Something Of Myself (1937), the poem was inspired by Dr Leander Starr Jameson, who in 1895 led a raid by British forces against the Boers in South Africa, subsequently called the Jameson Raid. [1] This defeat increased the tensions that ultimately led to the Second Boer War. The British press, however, portrayed Jameson as a hero in the middle of the disaster, and the actual defeat as a British victory. An autobiography (from the Greek auton, self, bios, life and graphein, write) is a biography written by the subject or composed conjointly with a collaborative writer (styled as told to or with). The term dates from the late eighteenth century, but the form is much older. ... 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... An 1895 cartoon of Jameson from Vanity Fair Sir Leander Starr Jameson, Bt, KCMG (February 9, 1853 – November 26, 1917), also known as Doctor Jim, was a British colonial statesman who was best known for his involvement in the Jameson Raid. ... 1895 (MDCCCXCV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... The Jameson Raid (December 29, 1895 - January 2, 1896) was a raid on Paul Krugers Transvaal Republic carried out by Sir Leander Starr Jameson and his Rhodesian and Bechuanaland policemen over the New Year weekend of 1895-96. ... Boer is the Afrikaans (and Dutch) word for farmer which came to denote the descendants of the Afrikaans-speaking migrating farmers of the expanding eastern Cape frontier. ... The Jameson Raid (December 29, 1895 - January 2, 1896) was a raid on Paul Krugers Transvaal Republic carried out by Sir Leander Starr Jameson and his Rhodesian and Bechuanaland policemen over the New Year weekend of 1895-96. ... The Second Boer War, also known as the South African War, was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902. ... Sir Galahad, a hero of Arthurian legend From the Greek cognate ηρως, in mythology and folklore, a hero (male) or heroine (female) is an eminent character archetype that quintessentially embodies key traits valued by its originating culture. ...

"If—" holds the world record as the poem reprinted in more anthologies than any other. In a 1995 BBC opinion poll, it was voted the most popular poem of all time in the United Kingdom. Kipling himself noted in Something Of Myself that the poem had been "anthologised to weariness". Anthology may also mean a Alien Ant Farm album ANThology, see Anthology (AAF Album) An anthology is a collection of literary works, originally of poems, but in recent years its usage has broadened to be applied to collections of short stories and comic strips. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Corporate logo of the British Broadcasting Corporation. ...

Despite the poem's immense popularity many critics deride "If—" as little more than doggerel and a list of aphorisms strung together. T. S. Eliot used it to argue that Kipling was only a versifier and not a real poet. George Orwell—an ambivalent admirer of Kipling's work who hated the poet's politics—compared people who only knew "If—" "and some of his more sententious poems", to Colonel Blimp. Doggerel describes verse considered of little literary value. ... Aphorism (From the Greek αφοριζειν, to define), literally a distinction or a definition (See the Online Etymology Dictionary entry), is a term used to describe a principle expressed tersely in a few telling words or any general truth conveyed in a short and pithy sentence, in such a way that when... T.S. Eliot (by E.O. Hoppe, 1919) Thomas Stearns Eliot, OM (September 26, 1888 – January 4, 1965) was an American-born poet, dramatist, and literary critic, whose works, such as The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Waste Land and Four Quartets, are considered major achievements of twentieth... Poetaster, rhymester or versifier are contemptuous names often applied to bad or inferior poets. ... Eric Arthur Blair (June 25, 1903–January 21, 1950), better known by the pen name George Orwell, was a British author and journalist. ... The cartoonist David Low first drew Colonel Blimp for Lord Beaverbrooks London Evening Standard in the 1930s: pompous, irascible, jingoistic and stereotypically English. ...

The most famous reference to this poem is the inscription of the lines "If you can meet with triumph and disaster / And treat those two imposters just the same" above the entryway to Centre Court at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, Wimbledon, London. The original version of this inscription appears briefly in Alfred Hitchcock's film Strangers on a Train, with the "two imposters" line showing symbolically during a conversation before the final match, even though the character of Guy Haines is supposed to be playing tennis in New England. Centre Court is the main tennis court at Wimbledon in London, England. ... The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club is based in Wimbledon in South London. ... Wimbledon logo Wimbledon is the oldest and most prestigious event in the sport of tennis. ... London is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England. ... Alfred Joseph Hitchcock KBE (August 13, 1899 – April 29, 1980) was a British-born American film director and producer, closely associated with the suspense thriller genre. ... Strangers on a Train is a film released in 1951 by Warner Bros. ... First Flag of New England, 1686-c. ...

Another well-known popular culture reference to the poem occurs in the Francis Ford Coppola film, Apocalypse Now. The first three lines of the poem are quoted by the Dennis Hopper character, a photojournalist, immediately before quoting from the T.S. Eliot poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Francis Ford Coppola at Cannes 2001 Francis Ford Coppola (born April 7, 1939 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American film director, screenwriter, vintner, magazine publisher, and hotelier, most renowned for directing the highly regarded Godfather trilogy. ... Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American film directed by Francis Ford Coppola from a script by John Milius (rewritten by Coppola) which was inspired by Joseph Conrads classic novella Heart of Darkness. ... Dennis Hopper (born May 17, 1936) is an American actor and film-maker. ... Sports photojournalists at Indianapolis Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism (i. ... Thomas Stearns Eliot (September 26, 1888 - January 4, 1965), was a major Modernist Anglo-American poet, dramatist, and literary critic. ... The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (Composed February 1910 - July 1911) is the main poem in the book Prufrock and Other Observations published by T. S. Eliot in 1917, which marked the start of his career as a writer. ...

The poem is also referenced in The Simpsons episode Old Money in which Grandpa Simpson quotes the lines pertaining "a game of pitch and toss" and the final line, "you'll be a man, my son." Homer's response is, "You'll be a bonehead! The Simpsons is the longest-running American animated television series and overall sitcom, with 17 seasons and 367 episodes since it debuted on December 17, 1989 on FOX. The TV series, created by Matt Groening, is a spinoff of a series of animated shorts originally aired on The Tracey Ullman... Old Money is an episode of the second season of The Simpsons Episode details Production Number: 7F17 Original Air Date: March 28, 1991 Writers: Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky Director: David Silverman Blackboard: I will not grease the monkey bars Couch Gag: Grampa wakes up Synopsis Spoiler warning: Abe meets... Abraham J. Simpson (Grampa or Abe) is a fictional character featured in the animated cartoon television series The Simpsons. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

The words of the poem are as follows:

"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 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!

Rudyard Kipling, 1895.

Reference

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

If (poem)

Chapter VII of Something of Myself Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wikisource – The Free Library – is a Wikimedia project to build a free, wiki library of primary source texts, along with translations of source-texts into any language and other supporting materials. ...

External links

• Free human-read audio recording of "If-" at Librivox