if poem - shmoop

8/18/2019 If Poem - Shmoop

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IN A NUTSHELL

South Africa, December 29, 1895: a group of British mercenaries enters a

Boer-controlled and administered territory known as the Transvaal Republic.

"Boer" was the name given to the descendants of South Africa's early Dutch

settlers, but the mercenaries were attempting to take control of Johannesburg

for Great Britain. Through a series of mishaps (the invaders failed to cut all the

appropriate telegraph lines, for example, and the Boer government was thus

able to halt their advance), the invasion ultimately stalled.

The raid was led by one Sir Leander Starr Jameson, and has thus become

known as the Jameson Raid. While initially only a small blip on the radar, the

raid ultimately had a number of profound effects on the later history of South

Africa (which was not yet a unified nation in 1895). The whole deal was part of

anunauthorized British plan to gain control over the Transvaal and its recently

discovered gold and diamond deposits.

The basic plan had been this: foreigners living in Johannesburg (called"Uitlanders") would be encouraged to revolt against unfair Boer government

practices. Then—poof, the invaders would enter, quell the uprising, take

control of the city and thus the nearby gold mines. It was an elaborate plan, to

be sure, and one that depended on everybody doing their part (the Uitlanders

revolting, Jameson's crew cutting the right telegraph lines, etc.). Clearly, things

went… well, awry.

And two things happened as a result of the Jameson Raid. (Well, lots of things

happened, but there are two big ones that we need to talk about.) First, things

only got worse between the British and the Boers in South Africa. In fact,

things got so bad that the two groups decided to duke it out on the battlefield

in a conflict that has become known as the Second Boer War (1899-1902). At

the end of the war, nearly 100,000 people died, both on the battlefield and

inBritish concentration camps. The Brits got the lands they wanted, though,

and ultimately incorporated them into the Empire.

The other important consequence of the Jameson Raid wasRudyard Kipling's

poem "If." While Kipling is best known these days for the Jungle Book (1894),

he wrote lots of poems, stories, and even a novel—all works that are not as

widely read as they once were. (And, yes, this is the same Jungle Book that was

the basis forthe Disney movie. You can read what we have to say about one ofthe stories in Kipling's famous short story collectionhere.)

Kipling was inspired by Jameson's leadership and bravado. While written

shortly after the raid in 1896, Kipling didn't publish the poem until 1910,

when it appeared in a collection of short stories and poems calledRewards and

Fairies. The poem is often described as a near perfect description of Victorian

Stoicism, or thestiff upper lip, philosophical outlook and attitude that

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champions strength and endurance even in times of immense struggle.

"Unblinking fortitude even in the face of adversity and hardship," as the BBC

describes it.

If anything is definitively British, it is this outlook, this stiff upper lip. It is for

this reason that, ever since its publication, the poem has been very dear to the

British people. Lines from the poem show up all over the place, such as inthe

tunnel entrance to center court at the All England Club (where Wimbledon

tennis tournament is held every year). You can read more about the Victorian

period here and still more about Kipling's poem here.

WHY SHOULD I CARE?

In the 2000 hit movieGladiator, Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix encounter

each other in a computer-generated version of the Roman Coliseum. Maximus

(Crowe), a general-turned-gladiator, finds himself taunted by the Emperor

Commodus (Phoenix), who tries to enrage him with details about how his sonand wife were killed at Commodus's orders. Maximus, who must be seething

with anger, maintains composure. The only visible signs of his pain are a brief

swallow and, maybe, a choked back tear.

Most people would have lashed out at the evil Commodus and attempted to

dispatch him immediately. Maximus has been deceived, betrayed, enslaved,

forced to fight—in short, he's lost everything, largely at the hands of

Commodus. He's a general, however, and knows better. He remains strong,

waiting for the time when he will rise again. He is, in short, the definition of

stoicism.

Stoic? Yes, "stoic": an adjective that means enduring pain, hardship,

misfortune, but not showing any emotion. The word is used loosely nowadays,

but it used to refer to a very specific school of philosophy, pioneered by one

Zeno of Citium. You can read more about the movement righthere.

It is a word that is often used to describe people like Maximus, who manage to

be strong (or appear that way) despite staring misfortune right in the face.

Somebody could have recitedRudyard Kipling's "If" at some point inGladiator,

and it would have fit in just perfectly.

This is because "If" is a poem about stoicism, about being strong in the face of

pain, sadness, bad luck, hard times, etc. and continuing to move forward without throwing a fit or acting up. It is about being patient, about finding a

happy medium between extremes of emotion. The speaker of Kipling's poem, for

example, talks about losing everything but starting over without crying about

it, about watching other people lie and hate and choosing to not stoop to their

level, about not letting friends or enemies hurt you, and many other things.

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To put it simply, "If" is a kind of primer, 32 lines of advice about how to be stoic.

In fact, you could say it's a poem about how to become a gladiator in the

coliseum of life.

ANALYSIS: SETTING

Well, we don't get a lot in the way of setting in this poem. There are suggestions

here and there (references to a gambling game, descriptions of interacting with

common people and kings), but overall this poem doesn't really describe

reallyany specific places.

Nonetheless, there are two places that, although not technically in the poem,

are nevertheless a really big part of its identity. If you imagine a giant pot of

soup cooking on the stove, the poem itself would be the soup, but the

ingredients that gave the soup flavor would be the poem's historical

background. To put it another way, there are two major settings that influenced

the poem "If." You can't cook soup without a few ingredients, right?

The first bit of background would be late nineteenth-century South Africa. If

you've read our "In a Nutshell" section, you know this poem was inspired by the

exploits of a dude named Sir Leander Starr Jameson, who led a failed invasion

into an area of South Africa called the Transvaal. The Jameson raid was part of

an unauthorized attempt to gain control of the Transvaal, and its recently

discovered gold and diamond deposits. At the time, South Africa wasn't South

Africa. It was a collection of colonies and territories—some British, others run

by the descendants of the original Dutch settlers (called "Boers"), such as the

Transvaal. (Check out a map of 1895 South Africa righthere.)

The British really wanted control of the whole area, especially some of the Boer-

controlled areas. For their part, the Boers were fed up with British intervention

and began moving away from the British, only to see the British come after

them. The 1890s in South Africa, then, was a time of conflict, yet another

battleground between European powers that was nowhere near European soil.

The British and the Boers would eventually fight a few wars, the second of

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which, called the Second Boer War, ultimately resulted in the British

annexation of most of the area.

"If" also very much belongs to the late Victorian period, an era known for its

relative uptightness and conservatism. If you take a look at thissite, you canget an idea of what we mean by that. Read more about the Victorian

periodhere and more about Queen Victoria herself righthere.

The Victorian period was also the great age of British Imperialism. And by

great, we do mean great. By 1900, Great Britain controlled nearly a quarter of

the world's land, and governed almost 400 million people (some more strictly

than others). Australia, New Zealand, large chunks of Asia (primarily India and

Pakistan), and even larger chunks of Africa (Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan,

Kenya, Malawi, and others)—not to mention Canada—were all part of the

Empire.

The British saw themselves as partaking in a civilizing mission on the one

hand (non-Europeans were less evolved, and couldn't govern themselves, the

theory went), but also as improving their own country. British expansion gave

the country greater accesses to resources unavailable back home (tea and

sugar, for example) and opened up other opportunities (such as trade routes).

While we could go on for days about the British Empire, for now you can readmore about ithere if you like.

So, while the actual setting of Kipling's poem is not well-defined for us, the

historical and cultural settings in which "If" appeared are pretty clear: Britain

was branching out all over the world, and it took a certain kind of personality

to lead that charge. What kind, you might ask? Well, look no further than the

instructions provided by the poem itself.

ANALYSIS: SPEAKER

If one thing is for certain, it is that the speaker of this poemloves the word "If."

He loves it so much he uses it 13 times. In a poem that's only 32 lines, that's

nearly every two lines. Now the speaker doesn't use this word a million times

because he has some kind of problem or anything like that—far from it. By the

end of the poem, we learn that the speaker is talking to his son and the poem

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is partly instructional. The speaker, then, is not just a father, but a father who

is putting his parent-as-teacher cap on for all to see.

Lots of parents, when they're in teacher mode, have this way of appearing very

wise, and the speaker of "If" is no exception. The very fact that he is able to list

offallthe different things his son must do if he wants to become a man tells us

that he has been around the block a few times and is familiar with just about

every roadblock his young child will have to negotiate in his journey through

life.

Now, even though the speaker definitely resembles your incredibly smart father,

or your very wise grandpa, he also comes across like a sage counselor of sorts,

the quiet guy in the corner that is usually reserved, but every once in a while

decides to speak just to show that he knows more than all the blabbermouths

in the room. Just think of a guy likeMaester Aemon fromGame of Thrones and

you'll have an idea of what we mean.

Again, we get this vibe from the speaker because, well, he gives such detailedexplanations about every possible little situation. We can't help feeling that the

speaker doesn't just know about stuff, but has seen so much of it that he

knows exactly how things will play out: truths will be twisted by knaves to

make traps for fools, men will lie like crazy to get ahead, the things one has

spent one's whole life building will collapse… you get the idea. In short, this

guy has seen it all, and lived to tell the tale.

ANALYSIS: TITLE

• "If": a simple, two-letter title, and one that does and doesnot tell us a

whole lot about the poem. When we come across this simple little title,

our immediate reaction is naturally, "If what?" This is because "if" is one

of those words that really needs a friend, some other words to go with it.

If you just walk into a room and go "if," people might look at you like

you're from Mars (or Jupiter, or even Pluto). Right off the bat, then, the

poem's title puzzles us. It is enigmatic, to say the least. (Note: this does

not mean Kipling is from Mars.)

• Here's the other thing about the word "if." It usually describes something

that isn't real, or isn't realyet. It points to something could potentially

happen, or potentially exist. Think of it like this: if somebody says to you

"if you go to the store, you can buy soda," they are saying "hey, you

haven't gone to the store, and you might not go to the store, but if you do

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go, then you can get some soda." So, the word "if" usually describes

something that doesn't yet exist (you haven't gone to the store yet), but

also implies that some other thingswillhappen: you will be able to get

soda once you're there. (We're going somewhere with all this—just bear

with us.)

• This is the basic idea of Kipling's poem. It is 32 lines of things that the

speaker's listener hasn't done yet (learned to be strong, patient, wise,

etc.).If he does them, but onlyif, then he will basically have possession of

the entire world (ametaphor for power, a fulfilling life, and other things).

What's more, the listener will be a man. In short, the title tells us that

"If" is a poem about how certain things must be done. Only if those

things are done, will certain other things happen.

• And here's one more little thing to consider: We never find out what will

happen if the speaker's addressee does everything he's supposed to,

unless we read to the end of the poem. In other words, only if we read all

32 lines do we learn what will happenifthe listener does everything he's

supposed to do. Like the poem's addressee, we too have to do our part if

we want answers.

IF THEMES

IF THEME OF PHILOSOPHICAL VIEWPOINTS: STOICISM

You could summarize this poem in one word by just saying "stoicism." That's

sto-i-ciz-um. Stoicism was originally a philosophical movement that taught that

true sages did not experience emotions like fear and anger, that the truly wise

man would be impervious to misfortune. "If" is a poem all about this

philosophy. The speaker tells his listener not to tell anybody when he loses all

his money, not to give in to hate, not to allow his friends or enemies to hurt

him, and so on. It is a poem that essentially says that it is only by being stoic

(by having a"stiff upper lip") that a boy can become a man, and that a man can

master the universe. Okay, so the poem is a little rigid, and maybe a little

unrealistic at times, but the basic premise—that success is based on one's

ability to master negative emotions and to maintain balance in one's life—rings

only too true.

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Questions About Philosophical Viewpoints: Stoicism

1.Is there anything cold about this poem's outlook and/or advice? Why

might this attitude be in the poem?

2.Why do you think the word "stoicism" is never directly mentioned in this

poem?

3.Does the speaker lose anything (personality-wise) by being so stoic? If so,

what?

4.What is the effect of the poem's form on the theme of stoicism anyway?

Are the rhymes, meter, etc. in any way "stoic"? Why or why not?

Chew on This

Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.

You got this. Stoicism is about being in complete control—of one's emotions, of

one's feelings, and of just about anything else that might distract us from the

tasks at hand.Sheesh, stoicism is a difficult philosophy to adhere to. It is almost inhuman to

expect people to not experience negative emotions when they lose things or

when they're defeated.

IF THEME OF MEN AND MASCULINITY

Have you ever the heard the term "boy's club"? Yeah, well, this is a boy's poem.

No women are in here—anywhere. Not a single one. This is a poem about

manhood, about how to become and act like a "man." It is clearly spoken by a

father (or father figure) to his son, and it celebrates typically masculine virtues

(strength, for example). In this day and age, that might seem odd. Women can

be strong, too, that's for sure. In Kipling's day, however, gender roles were, well,

a little more segregated let's just say. While the poem does offer some good

advice, itis kind of a problem that the advice really only applies to the fellas.

Questions About Men and Masculinity

1.Is it possible that this poem could be for women too and that Kipling just

said "son" because, say, he happened to have a son?

2.Does this poem's macho-madness make it irrelevant for modern readers?

Or are these ideas of what it takes to be a "man" still floating aroundtoday? Why do you think so?

3.Is there anything "manly" about this poem's form? Why or why not?

4.What parts of this poem might apply to women today? Why do you think

so?

Chew on This



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Something just isn't right about this poem. Whatever ideas it expresses are

cheapened by the fact that they are limited to only men.

It's sad, but to be manly is to be unemotional. The speaker tells his listener

that, to conquer the world and to be a man, he has to be able to "watch"

crummy things happen and simply fix them, without "breathing" a word about

it.

IF THEME OF DEFEAT

This poem isn't just how about how to be a stoic, about how to handle

misfortune. It is also about misfortune itself, about defeat. Just think about all

the different kinds of loss mentioned in this poem: money, the things one has

dedicated one's life to, one's character. Defeat, loss—these are part of life, and

there's simply no getting around that. The poem makes that very clear. The

speaker, for example, doesn't bewail misfortune, or spout lines about how

unfair life is, but rather makes us understand that this is just the way things

are.

Questions About Defeat

1.Do we get any explanation in the poem for why defeat is such a pervasive

part of life?

2.How do you think the poem's form (its rhyme, meter, and structure)

relates to the themes of defeat and loss? Do they reinforce them?

Undermine them? How?

3.If defeat is so common in life, what is with all the references to success

(rebuilding things that are broken, for example)?

4.It's interesting that this poem was inspired by a defeat (the failed

Jameson Raid). Is it odd that this poem is so triumphant, even though

Kipling wrote it in response to a botched invasion? Or is defeat necessary

for this kind of poem? Why do you think so?

Chew on This


This poem really stresses the importance of not having a defeatist attitude. In

fact, a defeatist attitude is the quickest way to not get possession of the earth

and everything in it. So, turn that frown upside down, future world dominatordude.

Defeats don't have to be permanent. If this poem says one thing, it says that

defeat can be overcome, that losses can be turned back into wins.

IF THEME OF POLITICS


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In a poem that was inspired by a major political event (the Jameson Raid, an

attempt to colonize South Africa further) you'd think there would be more

politics in there. Despite the fact that there isn't a lot of obvious political

business going on, however, this reallyis a political poem—just think of that

reference to kings, crowds, and common people, or the whole business about

taking control of the earth. Whether it seems to be or not, "If" is a poem about

all kinds of different political issues (leadership, control of land, gender roles,

etc.).

Questions About Politics

1.Okay, so why do you think Kipling left out any specific references to the

Jameson Raid, in this poem?

2.Are there any lessons to be learned from this poem that could apply to

modern politics? How?

3.How useful is the advice here to, say, the President of the United States? Would you want that person to follow the speaker's lead? Why or why

not?

4.Does this seem like a politically correct poem to you? Why or why not?

Chew on This


Politics is all about striking out a middle course, being able to talk to kings and

commoners and remaining immune to harm from one's friends and enemies.

This stuff is terrible advice for a politician. After all, their first job should be to

communicate with their people, not bottle everything up inside in order to

portray some invented ideal of how to act.

Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.

1.What do you think of this poem's ideas? Are they relevant to the

contemporary world, to being a student? Why or why not?

2.Does it bug you that we have to wait until the very end of the poem to

find out what happens if the listener does everything the speaker

advises? What is the effect of this delayed gratification?

3.The speaker is addressing his son, but does this poem really resemble afather-son chat? If not, why not?

4.Why do you think there is no mention of women anywhere in this poem?

Was this poem meant only for boys?

5."If" is one of the most famous poemsever. The British absolutely,

1,000,000% adore it. Why do you think this is so?


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6. "If" is often discussed alongside another famous poem, William Ernest

Henley's"Invictus". What do the poems have in common? How are they

different? Which do you like better?
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if poem - shmoop

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