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If Poem by Rudyard Kipling

The poem 'If' offers advice from a father to his son on living a successful life through strong character and self-discipline. It emphasizes the importance of staying calm, trusting oneself while considering others' opinions, being patient, and treating success and failure equally. Ultimately, following this guidance leads to becoming a complete and wise individual.

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31 views1 page

If Poem by Rudyard Kipling

The poem 'If' offers advice from a father to his son on living a successful life through strong character and self-discipline. It emphasizes the importance of staying calm, trusting oneself while considering others' opinions, being patient, and treating success and failure equally. Ultimately, following this guidance leads to becoming a complete and wise individual.

Uploaded by

leninpreethi84
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Summary:

The poem "If" is a piece of advice from a father to his son. The poet tells us how to live a good and successful
life by developing strong character and self-discipline.

Each stanza gives advice on how to deal with different situations in life. The poet says:

 Stay calm even when others are angry or blaming you wrongly.
 Trust yourself, but also listen to others' opinions.
 Be patient, don’t lie, and don’t show off.
 Take risks, but don’t get upset if things go wrong.
 Start again bravely if you fail.
 Stay strong even when you’re tired.
 Treat success and failure the same way, because both are temporary.
 Be kind to everyone, but don’t lose your own values.

Finally, the poet says:


If you can follow all this advice, you will be a true and complete person, and the world will be yours.

💡 Theme:

The poem teaches us the values of self-confidence, patience, determination, balance, and humility. It is
about becoming a mature, strong, and wise individual.

Stanza 1 – Explanation:

The poet advises us to stay calm and composed even when others are panicking or blaming us. We should
believe in ourselves even if others doubt us, but at the same time, we must understand their doubts too. We must
learn to be patient, not lie even when lied about, and not hate others even if we are hated. Also, we should stay
humble—never show off or pretend to be too clever.

Stanza 2 – Explanation:

This stanza teaches us to dream and think, but not let dreams or thoughts control our life. We must treat both
success and failure the same way because both are temporary. If people twist our words or destroy the things we
worked hard for, we should not give up. Instead, we must have the strength to start again with courage, even if
we’re tired or have very little left.

Stanza 3 – Explanation:

The poet now talks about risk and courage. He says we should be brave enough to risk everything for a good
reason, and even if we lose, we must start again without complaining. We must continue working hard even
when we’re tired and have nothing left except our strong willpower. It’s that inner strength that keeps us
moving.

Stanza 4 – Explanation:

This stanza encourages us to be humble and kind, whether we are with ordinary people or powerful leaders. We
should not be hurt too much by enemies or even by close friends. Everyone should matter to us, but not so much
that we depend completely on them. Finally, we must use every minute of our life wisely. If we do all this, the
poet says, we will become complete and successful individuals.

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