Explication of Rudyard Kipling's Poem, If
“If” by Rudyard Kipling
Born to a British family, Joseph Rudyard Kipling, author of the Jungle Books, was born on December 30, 1865 in Bombay, India. The feeling of abandonment and confusion after his pampered life as a colonial influenced Kipling’s work. Kipling wrote the poem, “If”, that can be found online at http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_if.htm, a Carpe Diem poem meaning seize the day, which suggests and gives warning about what one may encounter in life and what they can do for the world to be theirs.
Having the structure of four stanzas with eight lines in each stanza, Kipling uses repetition, conjunctions, personifications, and an illusion as the literary devices in his poem. Throughout the poem, the author repeats the words “If you can....” Which is an example of repetition. An example of personification is when Kipling states “If you can dream---and not make dreams your master…” stating that dreams have human characteristics and can control you. The last two lines of the fourth stanza is a biblical illusion. “Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And- - which is more - - you’ll be a Man, my son!” this last part is basically stating that if you are able to use the advice given throughout the poem, the world will be yours and you will be complete. The rhyme scheme and pattern, is that every other line rhymes except the first four lines.
“Don’t give others reason to hate you,” is the main idea for the first stanza. I think this is true because it states that you have to control yourself and not lose control when others are blaming you. It emphasises the fact that one must be strong and not give into the hating, and not be stuck up, or have a smart mouth. “Keep the outcomes of your actions in mind.” I believe this is the main idea for the second stanza because first it starts off by discussing that you should have dreams but not let them control you. It discusses that you should think but to not
Born to a British family, Joseph Rudyard Kipling, author of the Jungle Books, was born on December 30, 1865 in Bombay, India. The feeling of abandonment and confusion after his pampered life as a colonial influenced Kipling’s work. Kipling wrote the poem, “If”, that can be found online at http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_if.htm, a Carpe Diem poem meaning seize the day, which suggests and gives warning about what one may encounter in life and what they can do for the world to be theirs.
Having the structure of four stanzas with eight lines in each stanza, Kipling uses repetition, conjunctions, personifications, and an illusion as the literary devices in his poem. Throughout the poem, the author repeats the words “If you can....” Which is an example of repetition. An example of personification is when Kipling states “If you can dream---and not make dreams your master…” stating that dreams have human characteristics and can control you. The last two lines of the fourth stanza is a biblical illusion. “Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And- - which is more - - you’ll be a Man, my son!” this last part is basically stating that if you are able to use the advice given throughout the poem, the world will be yours and you will be complete. The rhyme scheme and pattern, is that every other line rhymes except the first four lines.
“Don’t give others reason to hate you,” is the main idea for the first stanza. I think this is true because it states that you have to control yourself and not lose control when others are blaming you. It emphasises the fact that one must be strong and not give into the hating, and not be stuck up, or have a smart mouth. “Keep the outcomes of your actions in mind.” I believe this is the main idea for the second stanza because first it starts off by discussing that you should have dreams but not let them control you. It discusses that you should think but to not