July 9, 2012 – The world is too small? or Is it?

Roger Federer won his record-equaling 7th Wimbledon Title yesterday [July 8th, 2012.

Though he was upset in the quarterfinals here the past two years, he has met with much more triumph than disaster on the court where two of its most resonant lines, ‘If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same’ from Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If”, stand above the players’ entrance to the Centre Court at Wimbledon.

We take this opportunity to look at “If”……

IF…..

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 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!’

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!

“If” by Rudyard Kipling (poetry reading)

“If you think the views expressed in this poem are admirable, you should consider what George Orwell said about Kipling:
http://4umi.com/orwell/kipling

Also you could listen to Roger Whittaker, “I Don’t Believe In ‘If’ Anymore”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbfR2l0LzfI

Kipling wrote this poem for his son John then aged 12. Later he pulled strings to get John into the Great War, and John was killed in 1915.

Later Kipling wrote this codicil about his son and all the other dead sons:

“If any question why we died, tell them, because our fathers lied”.

Thus “If” does not represent Kipling’s views.” – as recorded by the upoader of this clip, SpokenVerse .

And let us enjoy another classic reading of the poem by ROBERT MORLEY :