Gurjeet asked 7 years ago
In Poem ‘If’ by Rudyard Kipling, the poet compares ‘triumph’ and ‘disaster’ with two impostors and advises to treat them as same. Why?
Triumph and disaster are impostors because they are passing moments. People become too happy at the time of success and may reduce their chance to reach higher goal and at the bad timing they may lose their faith and confidence. So, we can conclude that both triumph and disaster are impostors.
In Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘IF’, the poet personifies Triumph and Disaster and calls them ‘two impostors’ (pretenders/cheaters/deceivers).
People become too happy in success and forget their duty at hand. We may get too complacent or proud at a small success, reducing our chances to reach higher goals. Again, at bad times, if we are too grieved, we may lose our faith and confidence. In both cases, our regular course of work is hampered. That is why the poet calls triumph and disaster ‘two impostors’.
Therefore, he asks us to treat those deceivers similarly, with a smiling face. In short, we should not be too happy or too sad under any circumstances.
Triumph and Disaster are called two impostors because they are sudden movements which pass quickly in our life. Triumph is referred as positive and disaster as negative so we should treat both same and happily to overcome difficulties in our life.
Therefore the poet called the two of them impostors.
Triumph and disaster are impostors because they are the opposite of each other and can come anytime in our life. So, we should simply treat both triumph and disaster the same.