Wednesday, November 10, 2010

One of my favorite poems

Sometimes life is busy, taxing, and difficult. Especially in the middle of the semester, in the middle of my college career when it is starting to get really cold outside. 


And when that happens, I turn to this poem to help me find "the Will which says to them, 'Hold on!'"


image found here.

If
by 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 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!

2 comments:

  1. This is so lovely Tasha! I love it!

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  2. If you can force you heart and nerve and sinew
    to serve long after they are gone......

    Reminds me of someone.


    Thanks for the reminder of my favorite poem of all time. Love it!

    (So much better than the Songs of Soloman...) lol

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