The poem thus became one of the great inspirational poetic messages of the twentieth century, particularly in the United States. Having drafted the poem in 1921 and registered it for copyright in 1927, Ehrmann then distributed the poem in a Christmas card in 1933.Ī few years later, the psychiatrist Merrill Moore was given a copy of the poem, and he distributed 1,000 copies to his patients and soldiers during World War II. This poem from the 1920s is a little different from others on this list, in that it’s an example of the prose poem. This is summed up well in the reference to meeting with triumph and disaster and ‘treat those two impostors just the same’ – in other words, be magnanimous in victory and success (don’t gloat or crow about it) and be dignified and noble in defeat or times of trouble (don’t moan or throw your toys out of the pram).Ī phrase that is often used in discussion or analysis of ‘If-’ is ‘stiff upper lip’, that shorthand for the typically English quality of reserve and stoicism in the face of disaster. Stoicism looms large in Kipling’s famous poem – that is, the acknowledgment that, whilst you cannot always prevent bad things from happening to you, you can deal with them in a good way. Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,Īnd yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise … If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,īut make allowance for their doubting too
If you can keep your head when all about you
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