An "If" in Verse and Song for Boys and Girls

An If for boys and girls


Many men, as young boys, were taught to follow the gentle, wise instructions on the path to idealized manhood within the stanzas of Rudyard Kipling's 1895 poem, "IF"?  

Some women as young girls, may have been taught the reply poem, composed in 1931 by Elizabeth Lincoln Otis, with its' own special wisdom, "An If for Girls". 

However much the expectations of the civilized world may change from generation to generation, these verities remain eternal.

Presented below are Michael Caine's recitation of "If" followed by Joni Mitchell's musical adaptation of the same poem and the text of Ms. Otis reply.

If—

BY RUDYARD KIPLING (1895) 

Read by Michael Caine

Joni Mitchell interprets If

If by Rudyard Kipling

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!

An “If” for Girls (1931)

BY ELIZABETH LINCOLN OTIS

(With apologies to Mr. Rudyard Kipling)

If you can dress to make yourself attractive,

       Yet not make puffs and curls your chief delight;

If you can swim and row, be strong and active,

       But of the gentler graces lose not sight;

If you can dance without a craze for dancing,

       Play without giving play too strong a hold,

Enjoy the love of friends without romancing,

       Care for the weak, the friendless and the old;

If you can master French and Greek and Latin,

       And not acquire, as well, a priggish mien,

If you can feel the touch of silk and satin

       Without despising calico and jean;

If you can ply a saw and use a hammer,

       Can do a man’s work when the need occurs,

Can sing when asked, without excuse or stammer,

       Can rise above unfriendly snubs and slurs;

If you can make good bread as well as fudges,

       Can sew with skill and have an eye for dust,

If you can be a friend and hold no grudges,

       A girl whom all will love because they must;

If sometime you should meet and love another

       And make a home with faith and peace enshrined,

And you its soul—a loyal wife and mother—

       You’ll work out pretty nearly to my mind

The plan that’s been developed through the ages,

       And win the best that life can have in store,

You’ll be, my girl, the model for the sages—

       A woman whom the world will bow before.