If (Rudyard Kipling)

[heinzs]

This one is an example of a repetitive concept verse, a type of poem that is extremely difficult to make workable and keep the audience's interest and attention. Kipling's is a masterpiece of inspiration that has survived for generations.

If you can keep your head when all about you
[tab]Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
[tab]But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
[tab]Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
[tab]And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream-and not make dreams your master;
[tab]If you can think-and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
[tab]And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
[tab]Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
[tab]And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
[tab]And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
[tab]And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
[tab]To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
[tab]Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
[tab]Or walk with Kings-nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
[tab]If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
[tab]With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
[tab]And-which is more-you'll be a Man, my son!

[Richard taylor]

this poem is so beautiful it brings tears, and lifts the heart
richard

[heinzs]

Of course, with the mods being temporarily destroyed, it now looks like "trash" since the

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