Tonight’s poem is a list of advice from a father to his son: one long sentence of “if”s. If you can keep calm when everyone else is panicking, if you can dream but not be ruled by dreams… then you’ll be a man.
Learn from Songs · Poetry · B1–B2
If—
Rudyard Kipling’s famous advice from a father to his son, often voted Britain’s favourite poem: the first conditional with long if-clauses, and yet / nor / neither, phrasal verbs of character (hold on, give way to, build up), and the Stoic ideal, with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria.
SOPHIA
MARCOS
Just one sentence? The whole poem?
SOPHIA
Thirty-two lines, one sentence, and the answer comes only at the very end. In Britain it is often voted the nation’s favourite poem, and two of its lines are written over the players’ entrance at Wimbledon.
DEMETRIA
Which two?
Before you listen: the song
Sussex, about 1895–1910
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) was born in Bombay, in British India, and became one of the most popular writers in English, famous for The Jungle Book and Just So Stories. In 1907 he became the first English-language writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Some of his writing about the British Empire is criticised today.
“If—” was published in 1910 in Rewards and Fairies, addressed to his son John. Kipling said it was partly inspired by Leander Starr Jameson, a British colonial leader who had led a failed raid in South Africa and accepted the blame calmly. Kipling’s son John was killed in the First World War in 1915, aged eighteen.
The poem is a list of conditions: if you can keep your head, trust yourself, wait, dream, think, meet triumph and disaster calmly, lose everything and start again, talk with crowds and walk with kings, then the earth will be yours, and you’ll be a man.
Character is how you meet triumph and disaster.
If—
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936)
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!
Words in the poem
keep your head: stay calm
make allowance for: accept, understand
deal in lies: tell lies, use lies
give way to: surrender to
impostors: people who pretend to be someone else
knaves: dishonest men
stoop: bend down
heap: pile
pitch-and-toss: a game of chance with coins
sinew: the strong tissue that joins muscle to bone
serve your turn: do what you need
virtue: goodness, moral strength
the common touch: the ability to get on with ordinary people
foes: enemies
unforgiving: that does not forgive, cannot be repeated
Read and listen: the one long sentence
PHILO
Read the poem. How many times does it say “If you can”? What is the reward at the end?
SOPHIA
Find the two lines written at Wimbledon. Then answer Section A.
⚖️ Listen to the song: “If—” (Rudyard Kipling, 1910).Find a reading →
The first conditional with long if-clauses
MARCOS
If you can keep your head…, if you can trust yourself…, … yours is the Earth…, and you’ll be a Man, my son!
SOPHIA
If + present simple (can), will + infinitive. Kipling makes the if-part enormous to build suspense: the result arrives only in the last two lines. A powerful technique for speeches.
Contrast: and yet, nor, but
DEMETRIA
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise. If you can dream, and not make dreams your master. If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you.
SOPHIA
and yet = but still; nor = and not (after a negative); neither… nor = not one and not the other. The poem balances every virtue with a warning: be confident, but not proud.
Phrasal verbs of character
PHILO
keep your head, give way to hating, build them up, start again, hold on.
SOPHIA
keep your head = stay calm; lose your head = panic. give way to = surrender to. build up = rebuild. hold on = continue, don’t let go.
Triumph and Disaster: two impostors
MARCOS
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, and treat those two impostors just the same.
SOPHIA
An impostor pretends to be someone else. Kipling says success and failure both pretend to be more important than they are. That is why tennis players walk under these words at Wimbledon: win or lose, stay the same person.
Sophia’s comparison: the Stoics and Job
SOPHIA
The Stoic philosophers taught that some things are in our power and some are not: we can’t control fortune, but we can control how we meet it. Kipling’s poem is a Stoic sermon in thirty-two lines.
PHILO
And Job lost everything, his children, his wealth, his health, and said: the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. He argued, he cried, but he held on. And at the end, he was given back twice as much.
Sophia’s summary
| Words and forms | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| If + can…, will… | first conditional with long if-clauses | If you can keep your head…, you’ll be a man. |
| and yet / nor / neither… nor | balanced warnings | neither foes nor loving friends |
| keep your head / lose your head | stay calm / panic | Keep your head! |
| give way to / build up / hold on | phrasal verbs of character | Don’t give way to hating. |
| impostor | someone pretending | Triumph and Disaster are impostors. |
Practice
Listen to the song for Section A, then do the rest. Press “Check my answers” at the end. You can try again as many times as you like.
A · Listen: the song
Listen to the song and choose the best answer.
1. Who is the poem addressed to?
2. What is the reward at the end?
3. What should you do when everyone around you is losing their head?
4. What are Triumph and Disaster called?
5. Where are two lines of the poem written?
6. Which famous book did Kipling write?
B · Grammar and vocabulary
Write the missing word or words.
7. If you can keep your head, you be a man.
8. If you can dream, and make dreams your master.
9. foes nor loving friends can hurt you.
10. Don’t give to hating.
11. Keep calm! Don’t lose your .
12. Stoop and build ’em with worn-out tools.
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
13. “If you can keep calm, you will succeed.”
14. “If you will keep calm, you succeed.”
15. “Neither my friends or my enemies came.”
16. “He kept his head when everyone panicked.”
Talk and write
Discussion and writing
My If. In groups, write four new lines in Kipling’s style for today: If you can… and not… Read them aloud.
Discuss. 1. Which line of advice is the most useful for you? 2. Is it good to treat success and failure “just the same”? 3. The poem says “a Man”. Is its advice only for boys? Kipling is admired and criticised: can we learn from writers we partly disagree with?
Write (120–150 words). Advice to my younger self. Write a letter of advice using at least five if-clauses, and yet / nor, and two phrasal verbs of character.
Now play the gamebook: Marcos, the big race, and triumph and disaster.Play the gamebook →