“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!

This poem seems to center on trying to teach somone morals and values by saying that if you are to do something than do it with self-confidence and shows that, in being confident, a person must have the courage to do whatever they want even in the face of people who disagree. This stanza also says that overconfidence is just as inhbiting as not having any confidence because it doesn’t allow for open-mindness for other views or beliefs. It seems that each line is a quality that each person should ascribe to. Lines 3 and 4 say to not get offended by doubt from others but also not to let doubt about yourself creep in. Line 5 is about patience, line 6 about honesty. Line 7 talks about having strength of character to keep going no matter what. The poem is written in four stanzas of eight rhyming lines, according to the pattern abab cdcd. It seems the poem is addressing on a general level then it shows that is has been directed to male. I don’t know if he is talking to his actual son or if it is a term used for the general male readers of his work.

Sara Teasdale “I Am Not Yours

I Am Not Yours I am not yours, not lost in you, Not lost, although I long to be Lost as a candle lit at noon, Lost as a snowflake in the sea. You love me, and I find you still A spirit beautiful and bright, Yet I am I, who long to be Lost as a light is lost in light. Oh plunge me deep in love, put out My senses, leave me deaf and blind, Swept by the tempest of your love, A taper in a rushing wind.

It sounds like the narrator is in love with someone, but that she is very independent, and doesn’t want to lose it by going with her feelings and letting herself fully fall in love. The narrator seems to be saying that she wants to feel the passion that goes with love, the lust that blinds all sense. She also wants to be so deeply loved but she also wants be her own person and not give the rest of who she is to anyone or give up parts of her identity that happens when you get involved with love. The poem is beautifully written and I think it really conveys the struggle that the narrator is having between choosing love and choosing her sense of self and independence. It’s set up in three quatrains in iambic tetrameter, each rhyming abcb, except for the last one, which rhymes blind with wind.

Stopping By Woods On a Snowy Evening By Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

On a literal sense the narrator is talking about visiting a spot in the woods and admiring beauty, even though the horse is wondering what he is doing. I think this is a great poem that paints a nice picture. On a deeper level it may allude to Life and that we should stop and take in what’s aroung us in the world before we let it all slip by. I think the line(s), “And miles to go before I sleep” points to taking in life. The narrator is basically saying there is alot more time to be had before I leave this world so there’s no need to rush. H even emphasizes this more by saying the same line twice. I think that we get so carried away in our goals and work, that we lose sight of the things that’s around us and we forget to take in the beauty and moments that life has to offer.

Anthem for doomed youth

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? 

Only the monstrous anger of the guns. 

Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle 

Can patter out their hasty orisons.

No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells; 

Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, – 

The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; 

And bugles calling for them from sad shires. 

What candles may be held to speed them all? 

Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes 

Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes. 

The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall; 

Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, 

And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

I like this poem as it talks about the side of war that no one really wants to acknowledge, where everyone wants to kind of turn a blind eye to. In war there is always death but this author looks at what a sacrifce some people make for our freedoms and focuses more on the ugly part of war. The narrator is basically saying that there isn’t much we do or can do to honor those that have fallen in times of war. Right from the start the narrrator says that what we consider as a ceremony to the dead to honor them is more like a mockery than honoring as more soldiers are sent over to replace the ones who have just fallen. “No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;” seem to suggest that no service we can hold or prayers we can say can truly make up for so many men dying. I like how the anthem, the service, and the prayers are said in terms of the things you would see or hear in war. The narrator mentions the troops being like cattle, and their orisons(prayers) are like “the monstrous anger of the guns,” “the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle,” and “demented choirs of wailing shells.” I think what he’s trying to say is that the war and the deaths by the war overshadow the services we hold for the dead, that it can’t really be taken seriously. It seems like dusk and the drawing of shades is symbolic here where the coming of nightime is like the drawing of shades, kind of like showing respect for the dead you draw the shades.  

 

The More Loving One

Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.

How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.

Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.

Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total darkness sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.

The message I recieved from this poem is that in order to continue being happy even when your love is unrequited, is to know that there is some solice in knowing that you have given your all while they fell short by unreciprocating. I think that the lines, “How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?” refers to this. If you were unable to compare to the brilliance by the stars then one might feel a bit silenced by it. I think that there is a reason the author used the stars in this poem is to show that there are millions of people out there and you shouldn’t feel down if one, or a few don’t return your love because there is tons of chances to find the one that will. My favorite line is “I cannot, now I see them, say I missed one terribly all day.” It shows because he has loved so often that it’s not really a big deal to him, it doesn’t really hurt him as much. The author takes comfort in the fact that the indifference he recieves from those that don’t love him isn’t quite the worst thing that can happen to someone.

An interesting poem

This poem is by Emily Dickinson. It’s called “Because I Could Not Stop For Death.” This poem tries to humanize death and make it like a gentleman that leads you over into the non-living rather than a tough thing to deal with, something that steals people from you. She talks about it like it is like she is having a meeting with Death instead of the usual swift and oftentimes unexpected way that death comes about. I like the way she used her wording because in a way it brings about some humor about a very serious subject, but it still has that kind of chilling aspect to it. In the poem when they ’stop in front of the house’, I think she is talking about the house as if it was the place where we go after life, a cornice is kind of like a scaffolding to a building and by stating that it is on the ground it makes me think that it is a bit dilapidated. She uses a lot of things in the poem to compare to the process of death, the carriage being a vessel toward the non-living. She talks about the cold that comes over her cutting through her thin gown, and the scarf (tippet) that she is wearing. I think this signifies the actual crossing over before they get to the house.

Because I could not stop for Death-

He kindly stopped for me-

The Carriage held but just Ourselves-

And Immortality.

We slowly drove- He knew no haste

And I had put away

My labor and leisure too,

For his Civility-

We passed the School, where Children strove

At Recess- in the Ring-

We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain-

We passed the Setting Sun- 

Or rather- He passed Us-

The Dews drew quivering and chill-

For only Gossamer, my Gown-

My Tippet- only Tulle-

We pausedbefore a House that seemed

A Swelling of the Ground-

The Roof was scarcely visible-

The Cornice- in the Ground-

Since then- ’tis Centuries- and yet

Feels shorter than the Day

I first surmised the Horses’ Heads

Were toward Eternity-

Quality not quantity

The author of the ‘Chosen One’ wished to be remained anonymous. Its a really short poem but I think it has a  good meaning to it.

“Not the flesh of my flesh Nor the bone of my bone, But still miraculously my own. Never forget for a single minute,You didn’t grow under my heart, But in it”

This poem says alot for me because I take care of my two nephews alot of the time. Even though they aren’t my kids, I love them to death and I would do anything for them. This poem basically says that someone doesn’t have to be their own in order to have love for them. The matters of being your flesh is trivial compared to the love you feel for someone regardless. The flesh and bone reference is in the bible, where God creates Eve by taking a rib out of Adam. Then he states “”This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.” This shows that the author was religious enough to know the line, and felt just as much love for whomever they were talking about as if it was by blood. I found the poem in a book dedicated solely to love poems, it was published in 1964.