What do we learn

about the poet’s

hopes and ambitions
for his son?
 Rudyard Kipling is a famous English short story writer who also
Rudyard Kipling write poetry. His most famous work is ‘The Jungle Book.’ He was
highly acclaimed and celebrated during his own lifetime, winning
the Nobel Prize for literature in 1907.

He was born in Bombay in India where his father was a professor at

the School of Art. Although Kipling went to school in England, he
returned to Lahore, where his father had become the curator of the
museum, when he was 16. Kipling because assistant editor of a
small local newspaper, the ‘Civil and Military Gazette.’ In his role
as a journalist, Kipling gained knowledge of the lives of the Indians
and the British living abroad. He turned these experiences into
many short stories and novels.

When his writing took off, Kipling left India to return to London and
devote his time to fiction. He married and travelled to America
where he met other famous writers. He eventually settled with his
family in Devon, England, where he wrote prolifically.
The poem was first published in 1910 and addressed to Kipling’s son, John. Kipling’s son
died in 1915 at the Battle of Loos during the First World War. He was just eighteen years
old.

The poem was inspired by Kipling’s admiration for Leander Starr Jameson. Jameson was a
Scottish politician who fought to colonise Africa. He led an infamous uprising, called the
Jameson raid, in which he tried to gather British expatriate workers in South Africa to fight
against the Boer population which ran the country. The raid failed and Jameson was
arrested and put on trial in South Africa. Back home in England, the press and the people
hailed him as a hero for trying to snatch the country back from the Boers. Jameson was
sent to prison for 15 months. Upon his release, he became Prime Minister of Cape Colony
in South Africa.

Kipling was introduced to Jameson by his friend Cecil Rhodes. Rhodes was a British
businessman who had founded the country of Rhodesia in southern Africa. Rhodes
colonised this African territory, exploiting its natural resources and making himself a very
wealth man. Rhodesia has now been returned to its indigenous people and is Zimbabwe
and Zambia. Kipling was a great believer in British Empire. This was the political practice
of the British taking over territories abroad, governing their peoples, and taking their wealth
and resources. By 1922, the British Empire was made up of 458 million people, and
covered a quarter of the planet. It made Britain very wealthy and powerful.

The poem is inspired by the activities of men like Jameson whom Kipling felt encapsulated
what it means to be a British man. The qualities he prizes most in the poem are humility or
not being boastful, and stoicism or enduring hardship without making a fuss.
1 If you can keep your head when all about you
2 Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
3 If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
4 But make allowance for their doubting too;
5 If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
6 Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
7 Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
8 And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

9 If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;

10 If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
11 If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
12 And treat those two imposters just the same;
13 If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
14 Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
15 Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
16 And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:

17 If you can make one heap of all your winnings

18 And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
19 And lose, and start again at your beginnings
20 And never breathe a word about your loss;
21 If you force your heart and nerve and sinew
22 To serve your turn long after they are gone,
23 And so hold on when there is nothing in you
24 Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

25 If you talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

26 Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
27 If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
28 If all men count with you, but none too much;
29 If you can fill the unforgiving minute
30 With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
31 Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
32 And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!
What do we learn about the poet’s hopes and
ambitions for his son?
1. Firstly we learn that Kipling’s ambition for his son is that he
will become a man.
Dashes and embedded
clause: ‘-which is more-’
– Importance of
becoming a man for the
Conjunction: ‘And’ –
father
throughout the poem
Kipling offers advice
about what it means to
be a man. If his son 32 And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!
accomplishes all those
things, then he will Noun: ‘Man’ – presented
achieve that. as a proper noun to
emphasise the
importance of this ideal

Noun phrase: ‘my son’ – reinforces that this poem is written from the poet to his
son
2. Second Kipling advises on the qualities needed to achieve
this ambition.
Verb phrase: ‘keep your
head’ – Advice 1: stay
calm under pressure
Conditional: ‘If’ – Used
throughout the poem to
imply that only if you
follow these actions and
possess these ideals will 1 If you can keep your head when all about you
2 Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
you become a man
Juxtaposition of verbs:
‘keep’ vs ‘losing’ and
‘blaming’ – Centralises
the son and his actions
when compared to other
people’s actions.

The quality is
forefronted.
2. Second Kipling advises on the qualities needed to achieve
this ambition.
Verbs: ‘trust’ vs ‘doubt’
– Advice 2: have self-
belief
Personal pronoun: ‘you’
– Used throughout as a
personal address to his
son
Modal verbs: ‘can’ –
Advisory
Verb / Polyptoton: ‘lied’
‘lies’ – Advice 3: Avoid
lying when others
seemingly are
Verb / Polyptoton:
3 If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, ‘hated’ vs ‘hating’ –
4 But make allowance for their doubting too; Advice 4: Avoid hating
5 If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, when others hate you.
6 Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
7 Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
8 And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
Verb phrases: ‘don’t
look too good’ vs ‘nor
talk too wise’– Advice
Active versus passive voice: ‘If you can’ 5: Avoid showing off to
versus ‘being lied about’– Focus on impress others
individual behavior despite of or in spite of
other people’s behaviour
2. Second Kipling advises on the qualities needed to achieve
this ambition. Personification: ‘Triumph’ ‘Disaster’ – Advice 8:
Parallel structure: ‘verb, How you handle success and failures are important.
dash, and not make’ – They should be viewed in the same way.
Advice 6: Have
ambition but don’t let it Noun phrase: ‘two imposters’ –
overrun you / Advice 7: Advice 8: See above. Neither position
Thoughts are vital but is a permanent state so managing
not the goal – doing 9 If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
1 If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim; these temporary feelings are key.
stuff is important
0 If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
Parallel structure pitches 1 And treat those two imposters just the same;
the desired trait but 1 If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
offers a cautionary word Clause: ‘can bear to hear
1 Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
at the same time about 2 Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, the truth you’ve spoken /
excess. 1 And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools: Twisted by knaves’–
3 Advice 9: How you deal
1 with those who twist
4 your truths is incredibly
Verbs:1 ‘broken’, ‘stoop’ ‘build’– Advice 10: Possess determination – important.
5
when things go wrong to go again.
1
6
2. Second Kipling advises on the qualities needed to achieve
this ambition.
Verbs: ‘risk’, ‘start
again’, ‘never breathe a
word’ – Advice 11:
Reinforcing previous
ideas in terms of taking 17 If you can make one heap of all your winnings
18 And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
risks, determination and
19 And lose, and start again at your beginnings
dealing well with loss. 20 And never breathe a word about your loss;
The trait of ‘stoicism’ 21 If you force your heart and nerve and sinew
22 To serve your turn long after they are gone,
23 And so hold on when there is nothing in you
24 Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

Verb: ‘force’, Noun: ‘heart’, ‘nerve’,

‘sinew’ Polysyndeton: ‘and…and…
and’ – Advice 12: work to overcome
weakness so that endurance becomes
an easier thing.
2. Second Kipling advises on the qualities needed to achieve
this ambition.
Juxtaposition: ‘talk with
crowds’, ‘walk with
Kings’– Advice 13: The
importance of
relationships with 25 If you talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
others. You should be 26 Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
able to speak to the 27 If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
masses but also speak to 28 If all men count with you, but none too much;
‘kings’ as well. 29 If you can fill the unforgiving minute Juxtaposition of noun
Speaking to both should 30 With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, phrases: ‘unforgiving minute’
31 Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, ‘distance run’ – Advice 14: to
not have an impact on
how you are. keep going, aim high and
achieve more.

Clause: ‘Yours is the Earth and everything

that’s in it’ – If you can do all of the above then
the world is your potential.
Structure of the poem
• One long sentence – emphasising all of the hopes and ambitions the
father has for his son.
• The use of enjambment as a result connotes the idea that what is
being said is urgent.
• Iambic pentameter – creates an upbeat rhythm to emphasise the
hope and possibility of the future