Poem "IF—" Questions & Answers

Answer: The list of qualities desired in Kipling’s poem ‘If’ is rather a long one. According to the poet the following qualities can ‘make a man’ —

A man should keep his calm in difficult situations. Self-belief in one’s own ability and integrity is important. Being truthful in any circumstance is a virtue. Hate is not the way to go. And one should not by showy or arrogant for possessing all these good qualities.

We have to dream bigger and think deeply without getting detached from the reality. We should be indifferent to success and failure, knowing ‘Triumph and Disaster are two impostors‘. We should also possess the mental strength to bear with any situation in life — especially hearing someone twisting our words in their favour and seeing something, which we gave our life to, broken. Not only that, we have to build them up from the beginning again.

One should have the courage and determination to take big risks for good reasons. And if he loses, he should not utter a word about the loss but start all over again. Moreover, a strong Will for carrying on can force our body to continue even in the old age. This is all about the toughness of character that makes a man successful.

Be social and stay in touch with men from different corners of the society — walk with Kings, nor lose the common touch. Behave well with people, even with enemies. And be careful so that neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you and make you weak and sad. Realizing the value of time and utilizing it wisely is vital for success.

The poet has stated these qualities in four stanzas of his poem. According to him, if one can possess all these qualities, one can win this world, and what is more, one can be a perfect human being. Here is the detailed analysis of the poem ‘If-‘.

Answer: 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 bad times they may lose their faith and confidence. So, we can conclude that both triumph and disaster are impostors (deceivers).

Answer:

As the poet advises us, we should not indulge ourselves in lying even if people are telling lies about us. We should always remain truthful to keep ourselves out of any harm.

Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Again, if people show their hatred for us, we should still not hate others. We should respect and love people for whatever good qualities they have got. This is how the poet puts it —

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

Answer: ‘Pitch-and-toss’ is a gambling game in which the player who manages to throw a coin closest to a mark gets to toss all the coins, winning those that land with the head up.

In the poem IF, the poet suggests that we should learn to take big risks in life to achieve even greater heights. In a game like this, we may lose everything or win big. We have to take the risk and even if we lose, we should not utter a word about it, but start it from the beginning again. This actually hints at the mental strength one needs to win this world.

Answer: Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If” talks about some human qualities like calmness, self-belief, truthfulness, patience, ambition, thoughtfulness, indifference to success and failures, mental strength, power of will, attachment with people, wisdom to utilise our time well and so on. These are the virtues that make a man successful in life and make him a perfect human being. These qualities are rather universal. This was true centuries ago, even before the poet penned this poem, and will remain true forever. So, it is always relevant irrespective of time period, place or target audience.

Yes, for the present-day students, who, as some people object, are rather demoralised in an age of electronics, this poem is very much relevant in helping them build a strong moral character. Students are the future of nation. So, they need to develop a sound character to be successful in whatever field they choose to go in coming days. The self-belief, the power of will, the mental strength, the ability to dream and think and the calmness — all are going to bring him his desired achievement.

Answer: The final goal of Kipling’s poem ‘If–‘ is to guide us throughout our life to make us a good and complete human being. It is all about developing a good character in a man.

The main and instant purpose of writing this poem was to give the poet’s son instructions on how to lead a happy and successful life in this world. But this poem has shown many a people since then the right way to go.

Answer:

Will is a power of mind that can make one do something difficult, overcome any hurdle and achieve something great. The poet in the poem ‘If’ advises us to carry on even after the parts of our body stop functioning due to old age or any ailment. The power of will would force our body to work.

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

It is important to force our body to serve us for a longer period if we have to succeed in our mission in this short lifespan. World’s greatest achievers have often overcome the difficulties on their way of life by their power of Will.

Answer: Self-belief is the thing that can lead one to the path of success. If one does not trust oneself, one cannot find inspiration and know one’s strengths. That will lead to failure in the journey of life. Keeping faith in ourselves ensure that we don’t get demoralized or disheartened facing initial hurdles on the way. So, the poet has urged us to trust ourselves even when others doubt us, provided that we haven’t done any wrong.

Answer: The very title of the poem ‘If’ suggests that there is something conditional in this poem. The poet here talks about some crucial qualities of human character that we should acquire in order to be successful in life, and more so to become a perfect human being.

According to the poet. if we have to achieve something bigger, we have got to possess the virtues like truthfulness, calmness of mind, mental strength, self-belief, thoughtfulness, indifference to success and failure, time sense and so on. Dealing in lies, showing hatred to others, being arrogant or breaking down on occasional setbacks are not the ways to go.

The poet sets a goal for us in the very last lines–

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it
And–what is more–you’ll be a Man, my son.

And throughout the poem, he talks about this conditional fulfillment, which a man have to fulfill if he has to achieve the goals.

Answer:

Rudyard Kipling, in his poem “IF-” has given some definitive guide to build a sound character. Developing humbleness is a part of that. It is the quality of having a modest or low view of one’s own importance. According to the poet, we should not show off ourselves as too good a person or talk too wisely with common people, even after possessing good qualities.

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise

If we are not humble, people would feel uncomfortable in our company and avoid us, hindering our chances of success in life.

Answer: In Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘IF’, the poet has advised the readers to keep their cool in adverse conditions in life. ‘Keep one’s head’ is an idiomatic expression to mean “to remain calm and sensible when in an awkward situation that might cause a person to panic or go out of control”.

Keeping our calm is important as losing the temper does not solve a problem, rather intensifies that. Keeping the head cool makes us think wisely to face those tough situations, and ultimately a solution comes out.

Answer: Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘If’ focuses on developing inter-personal skills. In the poem, the poet talks of how to deal with people in different situations in life in order to achieve success and more so to be a good human being.

The poet advises us to keep calm when others around us are losing their cool and blaming us for something. The poet also makes it a point that we should not lose our self-belief and at the same time try to figure out what’s going wrong and why people are doubting us. Even when people lie about us or hate us, we should not deal in lies and not give way to hating. And having possessed all these virtues, we may sometimes be complacent and talk too wisely in front of other people. The poet warns us against such behaviour because people may start to avoid us and think us to be boasting. Thus the entire first stanza of the poem concentrates on developing interpersonal skills so that we can interact with people in a fluent manner and hold our good in all situations.

But this does not end here. In the fourth stanza of the poem he says, “If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, / Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch” This is also about interpersonal skills that we should keep in touch with people from different spheres of society and behave in such a way that people will be delighted to meet us. Neither friends nor enemies would be able to hurt us. And if we can develop such strong communication skills, we are sure to succeed in whatever we do in life, as the poet feels.

Answer: As the poet says “treat those two impostors just the same”, it is important to stay indifferent to both success and failure, to triumph and disaster, as success can make us complacent and failure can make us sad. Both the feelings are bad as they can affect our productivity and curb further potential.

Now, to treat those just the same way is not easy. We have to set higher targets at every success. We should take our success as added responsibility and challenge for doing better, instead of taking it as the final achievement. We must realize that quality line has no ending and there is always room for improvement. We should set the target really high and crave for perfection in what we do.

Answer: The poet Rudyard Kipling motivates the youths to stay courageous and persevering to be successful in the long run. In the short term we often face setbacks and hostilities, but we need to carry on with a fixed eye on the goal. Moreover we need to take bigger risks in life in order to achieve even bigger success.

If we get distracted or discouraged with the initial difficulties, we can never reach the target. So the poet asks us to bear to hear the truth told by us twisted by knaves. In the long run, people will know that we spoke the truth. He asks us to build again with the worn-out tools if we see our favourite things broken. If we cannot bear with that suffering and build it again, we don’t deserve the final rewards.

In this life nothing comes easy and there is no shortcut to success. So, the poet also advises to risk all our possessions to achieve something great. And, if we lose, we should not reveal it to others. If we do that, people would see that as our weakness and try to harm us. So, we have to take every chances. After all, if you win, you can lead; if you lose, you can guide.

Answer:

Here are line 11 and 12 from Kipling’s poem “If-“:

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;

In the above lines, two poetic devices are used — metaphor and personification.
 
Metaphor: Metaphor is an indirect comparison where there is a point of similarity. Triumph and Disaster are indirectly compared to two imposters who can deceive us. Triumph makes us happy, and on the other hand, disaster makes us sad. Both these things harms us. Happiness makes us forget our duty and sorrow can make us too weak. Thus, triumph and disaster both trick us into non-action and in a way deceive us.
 
Personification: We can classify these lines also as an example of personification which is attributing human characteristics to non-human objects. The poet has used both the words “Triumph” and “Disaster” in capitalised form and advised us to treat them equally, as if they are human beings who can trick us.