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 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:

Once again the words are noble enough, at the start the narrator praises dreams and longings but warns against becoming blinded with those wants. Interestingly, the knowledge of the god-like narrator warns against the personified (note the capitalisation) "Triumph and Disaster" realising both of them as "impostors," or of little importance in the grand scheme of things. The last two lines could be read somewhat as a conservative message (knowing the authors politics) with the idea of continuation and hard work in adversity, of course it is always dangerous to attach the author with the poem in such a way, though it remains positive and uplifting.

This idea is also continued within the next lines:

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 breath a word about your loss;

The attitude of never giving up and working hard certainly could be read
as an element of the conservative methodology, however the determination
and message of striving is there for all to adhere to regardless of
political vision. It is also much more than the method of a continuation
in the face of adversity, it is about the way this is done and never
breathing "a word about your loss" shows the utmost element of
self-dignity.

Of course the message of the poem throughout is also holding the tension
that will be finally released within the last line. The poem is
essentially and extended sentence with the object only released at the
end. Before this however there is more tension and dignity to be
wound-up within the message of the poem in the next stanza:

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;

Of importance in this section is the message of not becoming corrupted by the machinations of status, the individual not placing importance above anyone else, but showing ultimate humility. Obviously "Kings" is contrasted with "common" in order to cover all the strata of society in the same way as "foes" and "friends" is within the next line. The argument of treating a foe with the same humility as a friend and not allowing them to hurt you falls back to the self-confidence factor at the start of the poem.

In the last section of the poem the tension built-up throughout is finally released:

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!

The last line is also the realisation of the passing down of knowledge and wisdom from father to son, and it is the first time that we as readers realise that the poem is not directly addressed to them, but to a younger figure. This gives the poem an extra element of humility, and as readers we unconsciously care for this younger child and hope he prospers under such guidance, as we do ourselves.

Overall in the poem there is much truth and wisdom within these motivational words that seems tap into a core within the reader, expanding virtue and knowledge. True
words are often softly spoken and the gentleness and confidence which
meet the reader in the lines of the poem come across both reverent and
admirable. The obvious humanity which Kipling breached within the whole
poem stirs within the reader thoughts of a higher nature than the pettiness that surrounds daily life, it is just a shame that most people don't act upon the meaning carried within the Kipling's verse, for then we could truly ask "what if?"

Way Through the Woods
by
Rudyard Kipling

They shut the road through the woods
Seventy years ago.
Weather and rain have undone it again,
And now you would never know
There was once a road through the woods
Before they planted the trees.
It is underneath the coppice and heath,
And the thin anemones.
Only the keeper sees
That, where the ring-dove broods,
And the badgers roll at ease,
There was once a road through the woods.

Yet, if you enter the woods
Of a summer evening late,
When the night-air cools on the trout-ringed pools
Where the otter whistles his mate,
(They fear not men in the woods,
Because they see so few.)
You will hear the beat of a horse’s feet,
And the swish of a skirt in the dew,
Steadily cantering through
The misty solitudes,
As though they perfectly knew
The old lost road through the woods.
But there is no road through the woods.

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!

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14