An Explication Of The Poem "If" By Alan Ware Essay, Research Paper

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 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?s life, style, and

writing are very interesting and it?ll be remembered for a long period of time,

much longer into the 20th century. On December 30, 1865, Rudyard Joseph Kipling

was born in Bombay, India. Kipling wrote 19th century in his short stories, novels,

and poems. He used little symbolism in his work. Kipling wrote adventure and with

a didactic mind, which showed in his works. "The survival of the fittest"

was in Kipling?s vision of impearilism and British Life, and in his eyes, the

love of animals was the law of the jungle. He mostly wrote on a defensive side.

In 1936, Kipling?s poor health was reported throughout the whole world foreshadowing

his death. Kipling died from a fatal hemmorrhage two days after King George. His

ashes were buried in poets? Corner in West Minister Abbey. Rudyard Kipling was

overall an outstanding figure in the 19th centrury. Even though his style has

"dropped out of modern literature" his stories and novels are still

heard today. In the poem "If" there are thirty-two lines or verses,

and four stanzas. The metrical pattern alternates from trochaic pentameter to

iambic pentameter from one line to the other. The rhyme sceme is ABAB except for

the first four lines which all rhyme. Examples of sound devices include aliteration.

There is aliteration in line six, "Or being lied about, don?t deal in lies",

line eight, "And yet don?t look too good, nor talk too wise", and line

twelve "And treat those two imposters just the same." Other signs of

aliteraion are found in lines fourteen, eighteen, twenty-four, twenty-six, thirty,

and in line thirty-two. Another example of a sound device is assonance. Assonance

can be found in line one, "If you can keep your head when all about you",

line sixteen, "And stoop and build ?em up with worn-out tools", and

line eighteen, "And risk it on one turn of pitch- and-toss". Other signs

of assonance is seen in lines twelve, thirteen, sixteen, twenty, twenty-seven,

and twenty-three. There is no onomatopoeia in the poem "If". There is

few signs of literal language. In line nine it says, "If you can dream?and

not make dreams your master," there is a sense of being in a dream world.

In line thirteeen, "Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And

stoop and build ?em up with worn-out tools," a picture of someone working

with old tools runs through the mind. In line twenty-five, "If you can talk

with crowds and keep your virtue," this line lets the reader imagine talking

to a group of people. In line thirty, "With sixty seconds? worth of distance

run," the reader imagines running down a track. In the poem "If"

figurative language is shown rarely. In line eleven, "If you can meet with

Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same," there

is personification. In line twenty-four, "Except the Will which says to them:

"Hold on!" In his poem, Rudyard Kipling tries to set forth his ideas

of what a real man should be like. He states many morals and advice that people

can use in there everyday life. He tells the reader how not to let the reader

let the real world bring you down, and not to be self-conceited with yourself

our thoughts. The poem can apply not only to men but also to women and the entire

world. His thoughts and morals can always be found in any of the poems he writes.