IF POEM

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 POEM- I STANZA
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:
 In Stanza 1
 Kipling says to stay strong and clear-headed even if others are hostile

towards us, to trust ourselves even when others don’t (but also to accept

that they might doubt us), to encourage patience, to not lie even if people

lie about us, to not hate others even if we are hated ourselves, and finally to

not boast or seem too perfect and clever about all of our strengths — we

shouldn’t ‘look too good, nor talk too wise’.

(Stanza 2) – Analysis
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:
The main lesson conveyed in the second stanza is
to deal with Triumph and Disaster in the same
way. Be moderate as you have to accept the reality
in both conditions.
Success and failure are ‘impostors’: sometimes
they may turn out not to be what they look like,
and so neither should affect us greatly. Kipling
suggests that great success shouldn’t give you a
swelled head, and great failure shouldn’t
discourage you, and we must learn from both and
move on. 
Dreams are important, but they should not rule our lives as
they may pose as a barrier in our progress, and while it is
necessary to think things through, we should not be distracted
by thought and should stay realistic. We should accept what we
have said, and stick to our beliefs even if others twist our
words. 
It is important to have hope and enough willpower to
endure failure and to learn from your mistakes, even when
things seem hopeless, and to get up, construct yourself with
‘worn out tools’ which you have used so often, and not let
defeat affect you because the road to success is never easy.
If (Stanza 3) – Analysis

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!’
In If, Kipling imparts advice to his son. In Stanza 3, he says that
if you take all of your hard-earned successes and lose them all
because of one risk, you should be willing to start again despite
all your failures because taking chances is a part of life and it is
important to step out of your comfort zone once in a while.
And should one lose, one must stay self-contained and not
feel self-pity or require pity from others, because crying over
split milk is of no use. The father counsels the son that he should
stay persevering and strive for success and never give up, even
when he is exhausted and only has willpower left in him.
In the third stanza of "If," the author continues building his list of
 "conditions" for being a man.  Specifically, in this stanza he
addresses the importance of endurance, even in the face of
difficulties and loss. In the first four lines, he talks about how a
person must face the loss of riches:
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 breathe a word about your loss ...
Even in the face of losing everything, a "man" must be able to
get back on his feet and "start again," even if it means going back
to his "beginnings."  What's more, he needs to not complain about
his loss to others - rather, he must stoically persevere through this
set-back, not dwelling on the loss but looking toward the future.
In the next four lines, the situation or form of difficulty is more
open-ended, but the need to endure is the same:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on where there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: Hold on!"

Even when a person feels that his "heart and nerve and

sinew" have left him, and he feels spiritually, emotionally,

and physically weak, he must keep going.  He must "hold

on," even when the only thing he has left is the Will to say

hold on.