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Rudyard Kipling’s If - Updated
If you can keep your head when all about you people are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when everyone doubts 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 these 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 down and build them 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 hold on when there is nothing in you except the will to say to them "hold on",
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with the elite nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If everyone counts 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's more you will be a Blessed One.
Style / type:
Structured: Western
Review Request (Intensity):
I want the raw truth, feel free to knock me on my back
Last few words:
Rudyard Kipling's If - my edited version of his words
Editing stage:
(c) Neopoet.com. No copyright is claimed by Neopoet to original member content.
Comments
Sparrow
Tue, 2017-12-05 04:25
Young'un!
A good rewrite of Kipling's If I am not sure which came first:- The Desiderata by Max Ehrmann..
Or this one but the end product is the same..
Desiderata:-
Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others,
even to the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be.
Whatever your labours and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.
Both are wonderful ways to live and become part of the universal love that should be the goal of all..
Yours Ian..
.
Give critique to help keep Neopoet great.
Unconditional love to you all.
"Learn to love yourself first"
Yours as always, Ian.T, Sparrow, and Yenti
OriginalRhyku
Tue, 2017-12-05 05:07
Sparrow
You are consistently flying on a high trajectory and your Desiderata submission is in the same category.
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