Posted by Michael83 on November 12, 2007, at 20:03:34
I'm sure a lot of people on here have read this poem before, but I first read this poem about 5 years ago and it struck me the very first time I read it. It one was one of those things that while you're reading it, you know this is a moment you will always remember (being the first time you read it) and that these words will stick with you for a long time. I reread this poem atleast once a week, and when needed, often daily. It, in my view, really expresses what makes a good and sound individual. Very few people it seems live by the words in this poem, but those who do I think usually end up going very far in life.
Here is mine, and if you have some line or poem that effects who you are, what is it?
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If by J Rudyard Kipling
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 all 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
poster:Michael83
thread:794717
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20071026/msgs/794717.html