Topic: ...If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you...

l came across and fell in love with this great piece way back in junior post-primary level, l love the poem cos it shows and extols the very virtues at the core of manliness/humanity...Jesus Christ The son of David had these virtues...mortal men like u and l had them too...Nelson R. Mandela, Mother Theresa- The Saint of Calcutta, Mahatma Ghandi, Princess Di, Martin Luther King Jnr, Martin Luther Himself and all others that were burnt at the stake by the Mother Church, etc

@d whole house l challenge u to showcase ur best poems on this forum and tell us a little about it...lets get on to serious things...like Obama rightly said....



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 imposters 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 wornout 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 breath 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!

Originally Posted by florafab

@jeanie,

I can now understand what you meant when you said kemistkris was romantic

@florafab...nothing about the poem is romantic...so how come u think am romantic...though l must confess that am most romantic when l see a woman who deserves it...l can equally stand fast when l see one that doesnt...florafab women are good in poetry...why not send in ur own idea of a next to perfect poem...or dont u write and read him poems...