Monday, Jun. 07, 2004 - 4:54 p.m.
[poem] 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 allowances for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired of waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give away to hating,
And you don't look too good or 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 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 breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart 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 in 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 of distance run,
Yours is the earth and everything that's in it,
And - what is more - you'll be a man my son!