Summary & line by line explanation of ‘If’

First Stanza

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
To be a good human being and to succeed in
life, we should keep calm when other people
around us are losing their cool. We should not
lose our temperament even if others are
blaming us for their fault.

Losing the temper does not solve a problem,

rather intensifies that. Keeping the head cool
makes us think wisely to face those tough
situations, and ultimately a solution comes out.

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt

you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
We should have the faith in ourselves, even
when others doubt us. But after that, we should
give some importance to their doubt too and try
to find out what may be the reason for their
suspicion. After all, ‘To err is human…’.

So, By keeping faith in ourselves we make sure

that we don’t get demoralized or disheartened.
And, by allowing others’ doubt a little space of
thought, we ensure that we are not doing
something wrong knowingly or unknowingly.

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

We should work hard and wait for the result
patiently. We should not get tired by waiting.

There are a number of real life examples where

people missed big opportunities only by losing
their patience. Moreover, there goes a number
of proverbs. “Hurry will bury you.” “Haste makes
waste.” “Patience pays off.” So, it’s quite
understandable why the poet makes a point for
patience here.

Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

People may lie about us to others, but we
should not indulge ourselves in lies. In other
words, we should always remain truthful.

If we are misled or tempted to lie, people would

ultimately discover the truth and won’t believe
us anymore. That’s why it’s important to speak
the truth even if that hurts us.

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

People may show their hatred towards us, yet
we should not hate them. We should show our
love and respect to others.

No man or woman is perfect in this world.

Everyone has his strengths and weaknesses.
We have to accept that and respect them for
the good qualities in them.

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
We should not show us as too good a person or
talk too wisely with common people, even after
possessing such qualities.

Having acquired all these good qualities

mentioned above, people generally feel proud
and tend to show off how good they are. But,
the poet warns us not to go that way. In that
case, others would feel uncomfortable in our
company and avoid us. Even others may try to
prove us wrong at any cost, leading to an
unhealthy competition.

Second stanza

If you can dream—and not make dreams your

master;

To do something bigger, we should dream first.

But the poet also reminds us not to be guided
by unrealistic dreams. If dreams take the
driver’s seat, we would get detached from
reality and eventually fail.

There goes a saying – “You have to dream first

before your dream can come true.” So we
should dream to reach great heights in life, but
keeping the reality in mind.

If you can think—and not make thoughts your

aim;
We should be able to think over a matter, but
should not make the thoughts our aim. That is
to say that we often lose our radar and get
detached from the main point. So our thinking
should not be scattered misleading us away
from the target.

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

Life is a combination of success and failure, joy

and sorrow, good times and bad times. We
should accept both and face both situations
with similar treatment.

Here the poet personifies Triumph and

Disaster, capitalizing and calling them ‘two
impostors’ (pretenders or cheaters). People
becomes too happy in success and forgets their
duty at hand. We may also get too complacent
or proud at a small success, reducing our
chances to reach higher goals. Again, at bad
times, if we are too grieved, we may lose our
faith and confidence. In both cases, our regular
course of work is hampered. That is why the
poet calls triumph and disaster ‘two impostors’.
He asks us to treat those deceivers similarly,
with a smiling face. In short, don’t be too happy
or too sad under any circumstances.
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
We have to bear the tough situations where we
see that our speech or statement is distorted by
someone to befool others.

Very often we see that people misinterpret or

even deliberately distort our words to use it in
their favour. We should not lose our temper
hearing that. Rather we should tolerate that,
ensuring we have spoken the truth.

Or watch the things you gave your life to,

broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
We have to hold our nerves even after seeing
that our favourite thing that we built with all our
effort and time is broken. Then we have to pick
up the scattered parts and build it all over
again. This is another key to getting to the top
of the world, according to the poet.

To keep our cool is not easy in such a situation.

But patience and the mental toughness would
help us build them again. Indeed, there is a
story about Newton that the papers containing
his theories were destroyed in fire, and he
wrote them again from the beginning.

Third Stanza

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;
We should be able to accumulate all we have
and take a risk in one turn of the game of pitch-
and-toss. We may lose the game and all our
possessions. But we have to stay calm without
uttering a word about that loss and rebuild it
from the beginning.

Here the poet talks about the capability of

taking big risks to achieve much greater
success and keeping quiet even if we lose the
bet. This is yet another aspect of our mental
toughness that we need to possess.

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!”
In the four lines above the poet continues the
same theme of mental strength and the power
of Will. We have to force our body (heart and
nerve and sinew) to serve us even after it has
lost the strength due to old age or illness. Thus
we should keep on working driven by the power
of Will which would ask them (heart and nerve
and sinew) to ‘hold on’ compelling them to do
their job.

If we want to do something great from our

heart, the Will inside us would prevent the body
from getting tired. Indeed, there goes a proverb:
“When going gets tough, the tough gets going.”

Fourth stanza

If you can talk with crowds and keep your

virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common
touch,
We should stay in touch with people from every
class of the society. We should be able to talk
with common mass without losing our virtue or
moral values. Again, we should be able to walk
with kings without going beyond the reach of
the common people.

The common touch would help us realize the

reality and feel the needs of the society. On the
other hand, the noble touch would give us the
power and opportunity to reach higher goals.

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;
We should build ourselves strong enough,
mentally and physically, so that neither enemies
nor loving friends can hurt us. Moreover, we
should develop healthy relationship with
everyone around us, and should not allow
anyone to harm us.

We have to develop our personality the right

way, so that everyone supports us and gives us
importance (count with you), but none too
much. If we allow someone to give us too much
importance, we may be emotionally bound.
That may restrict our freedom and prevent us
from doing our duty. Or, we may get
complacent thinking that we are so much liked
by people, thus reducing our effort.

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Time is precious. A minute is filled with sixty
seconds. Time (minute) is here called
unforgiving , as it waits for none and doesn’t
forgive him who wastes it. We should utilize
every minute of our life in productive work.
Wasting time is not something we can afford in
our short lifespan.

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son.
Finally comes the achievement that we can get
if we fulfill all the conditions mentioned so far.
We can win this earth and everything in it. We
can go to top of the world and rule over
everything. And what is more, We would be a
complete and perfect human being.

We should not forget that Kipling wrote this

poem for his son, as it is addressed in the very
last line. The poet wanted to show his son the
right way to be a future leader. But it
has inspired many a man in their journey of life
on earth so far.