Insights from the Word
  • Home
  • Bible Exposition
  • Audio
  • Bible Institute
    • Basic Courses
    • Advance Courses
    • Topical Studies
    • Theological Studies
  • Books
  • About Mike

My Favorite Poem

If you were to ask me, “What is your favorite poem?” without hesitation, I would say “If” by British Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936). Although it was written in the nineteenth century (1895), it contains timeless truths that are needed in the twenty-first century.

                 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, and 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 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 wornout 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!

It speaks for itself. It needs no comment from me.

                                  © G. Michael Cocoris, 9/22/2010
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.