Poetic License~For all we Have-Kipling

aalallalltallthallthiInteresting how this ties in so much to 2011 culture! 


"For All We Have and Are" 
Rudyard Kipling 1865-1936 

 

Stand up and meet the war. 
The Hun is at the gate! 
Our world has passed away 
In wantonness o'erthrown. 
There is nothing left to-day 
But steel and fire and stone. 

Though all we knew depart, 
The old commandments stand: 
"In courage keep your heart, 
In strength lift up your hand." 

Once more we hear the word 
That sickened earth of old: 
"No law except the sword 
Unsheathed and uncontrolled," 
Once more it knits mankind, 
Once more the nations go 
To meet and break and bind 
A crazed and driven foe. 

Comfort, content, delight -- 
The ages' slow-bought gain -- 
They shrivelled in a night, 
Only ourselves remain 
To face the naked days 
In silent fortitude, 
Through perils and dismays 
Renewd and re-renewed. 

Though all we made depart, 
The old commandments stand: 
"In patience keep your heart, 
In strength lift up your hand." 

No easy hopes or lies 
Shall bring us to our goal, 
But iron sacrifice 
Of body, will, and soul. 
There is but one task for all -- 
For each one life to give. 
Who stands if freedom fall? 
Who dies if England live? 


 




One of his most popular poems: 

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! 

Rudyard Kipling