"If" by Rudyard Kipling (let's start a thread of favourite English language poems)

[naqshbandijamaati]

One of the great, inspirational, poems (in any language): "If" by Kipling.
Here it is wonderfully recited in a (now-almost vanished) British voice:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1Qtn...eature=related

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!

---

I think this poem also celebrates very noble ethical and moral
traits which are very Islamic. Generally, I think the traditional British
reserve and attitude is actually quite close to the Muslim one. Anyway, even if you disagree, it is a great poem.

[Mohammad Hassan Raza]

No offence intended Brother Asif. But I assume that you are unaware of the fact that Kipling was a Mason! And that his poetry and works reflect Masonic principles.

http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/texts/rudyardkipling.html

[naqshbandijamaati]

Well I wasn't aware that Kipling was a Mason but I don't see what that has to do with the poem, "If"?