Pink Packing

if

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

If u can keep your head when all about u
Are losing theirs and blaming it on u;
If u can trust urself when all men doubt u,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If u 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,
& yet don’t look too good,nor talk too wise;

If u can dream & not make dreams ur master;
If u can think & not make thoughts ur aim,
If u can meet with Triumph and Disaster
& treat those two impostors just the same;
If u can bear to hear the truth u’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things u gave ur life to,broken,
& stoop & build’em up with wornout tools;

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

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