If by Rudyard Kipling - Read by Sir Michael Caine

[300 H and H]

2:50 min.





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Sir Michael Caine's rendition of his favorite poem, "IF" by Rudyard Kipling. Kindly overlook the missing 20 seconds and focus on the overall meaning of this eternal verse. It brings together all the virtues of life: perseverance, humility, and integrity, in a way as to create the ultimate dose of inspiration. 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!

 

[Carol]

Simply beautiful.

 

[KobbeKid]

Kipling is one of my favorites.....he became politically incorrect some years back but I was reading somewhere that at least some of his stuff is making a comeback.

I think he was considered racist.....the English have gone to hell and America is not far behind them.

 

[300 H and H]

Kipling is one of my favorites.....he became politically incorrect some years back but I was reading somewhere that at least some of his stuff is making a comeback.

I think he was considered racist.....the English have gone to hell and America is not far behind them.

I like Kipling as well....
I hate to tell you the politically correct idiots are our nations biggest problem.
Democrats claim all whites are racist.
Is it any wonder that the politically correct are always Democrats? Coincidence?

Good times make weak men.
Weak men bring hard times.
Hard times make hard men.
Hard men make good times.


So who is Trump? A hard man or a weak one?
Who is Biden? A weak man or a hard man?
I rest my case.

 

[KobbeKid]

I dedicate this especially to all who have served guard duty in some distant land.

Rudyard Kipling​

Bridge-Guard in the Karroo​

1901

". . . and will supply details to guard the Blood River Bridge."
District Orders-Lines of Communication, South African War.

Sudden the desert changes,
The raw glare softens and clings,
Till the aching Oudtshoorn ranges
Stand up like the thrones of Kings --

Ramparts of slaughter and peril --
Blazing, amazing, aglow --
'Twixt the sky-line's belting beryl
And the wine-dark flats below.

Royal the pageant closes,
Lit by the last of the sun --
Opal and ash-of-roses,
Cinnamon, umber, and dun.

The twilight swallows the thicket,
The starlight reveals the ridge.
The whistle shrills to the picket --
We are changing guard on the bridge.

(Few, forgotten and lonely,
Where the empty metals shine --
No, not combatants-only
Details guarding the line.)

We slip through the broken panel
Of fence by the ganger's shed;
We drop to the waterless channel
And the lean track overhead;

We stumble on refuse of rations,
The beef and the biscuit-tins;
We take our appointed stations,
And the endless night begins.

We hear the Hottentot herders
As the sheep click past to the fold --
And the click of the restless girders
As the steel contracts in the cold --

Voices of jackals calling
And, loud in the hush between,
A morsel of dry earth falling
From the flanks of the scarred ravine.

And the solemn firmament marches,
And the hosts of heaven rise
Framed through the iron arches --
Banded and barred by the ties,

Till we feel the far track humming,
And we see her headlight plain,
And we gather and wait her coming --
The wonderful north-bound train.

(Few, forgotten and lonely,
Where the white car-windows shine --
No, not combatants-only
Details guarding the line.)

Quick, ere the gift escape us!
Out of the darkness we reach
For a handful of week-old papers
And a mouthful of human speech.

And the monstrous heaven rejoices,
And the earth allows again,
Meetings, greetings, and voices
Of women talking with men.

So we return to our places,
As out on the bridge she rolls;
And the darkness covers our faces,
And the darkness re-enters our souls.

More than a little lonely
Where the lessening tail-lights shine.
No - not combatants - only
Details guarding the line!

 

[KobbeKid]

I like Kipling as well....
I hate to tell you the politically correct idiots are our nations biggest problem.
Democrats claim all whites are racist.
Is it any wonder that the politically correct are always Democrats? Coincidence?

Good times make weak men.
Weak men bring hard times.
Hard times make hard men.
Hard men make good times.


So who is Trump? A hard man or a weak one?
Who is Biden? A weak man or a hard man?
I rest my case.

So true...........if Kipling were still alive and posted a poem on some political message board he would probably be perma-banned

Reasons given: White Man, Christian, Racist, Colonialist and a bigot.