"Carry On!" by Robert W. Service

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Permalink Reply by Sophie Nicholls on December 30, 2008 at 1:01pm

Taylor, this reminds me of my grandfather who said he would give me two shiny new pound coins if I could learn to recite 'If' by Rudyard Kipling... and I still know it today, every word:

'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 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 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 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!'

He gave me three pound coins in the end and laughed when I said: 'But, grandad, I don't want to be a Man. I want to be a Woman. Is that a different poem?'

And I'm still working out the answer to that... :-)

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