If

Occasionally I have been known to include a spot of poetry in my posts over these last couple of years. I'm not a soppy romantic, but I do love it when I hear or read the English language being used by a master. The best modern example is Stephen Fry, who wields the spoken word like a knight with his sword.

It was whilst visiting Bateman's, the home of Rudyard Kiplin. That I was re-acquainted with his most famous of poems, 'If'. I have included this poem below, please read through it. I believe this has a good chance of being the best piece of verse ever written. Even IF you know it well, reading it through again is worth the time.

[IF]

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, 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 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 and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all 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 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!

--Rudyard Kipling

I dedicate this to my son.
I will always try my best for you
With much love
Dad