I'm certainly not what you would consider a fan of poetry. Until today, the only poetry I read was forced upon me in school. I say until today because I read something this morning and I liked it. A blog I like to follow,
artofmanliness, has this 30 days to a better man thing going on, and today was to memorize the poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling. Now I really don't have any intentions on memorizing it, but I did read it:
“If”
By: Rudyard Kipling
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!
So there it is. It kinda fits in with a lot of the themes on artofmanliness, some of which seem to have disappeared in today's society. The whole thing kinda reminds me of the movie Gran Torino, which I watched just last night. Clint Eastwood's character is an old school korean war vet who still lives in the neighborhood he raised his family in. The neighborhood is turning into a ghetto, but he still keeps his house looking pristine because thats what his generation did. There's a bit of social commentary going on there regarding today's spoiled youth. I can't exactly lay out the whole movie here, but its definitely worth a watch.
Posts
