Biography of Rudyard Kipling

Biography of Rudyard Kipling

Zach

Rudyard Kipling was the most popular English poet of the nineteenth century. He was considered the last English-language poet. Kipling won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1907. Kipling experimented with structure rhythm, and rhymes. His parents nicknamed him Ruddy. Rudyard Kipling was born on December 30, 1865 in Bombay, Italy. Kipling’s family moved to India when he was young. His parents sent his sister and him to England to escape illness. During the ages 6-11 Kipling lived with a paid caretaker who mistreated him. Kipling attended United Services College. He returned to India at age 16 and became a newspaperman. In 1889 Kipling moved to London. Kipling then married Carrie Balestier. They took a honeymoon trip around the world, but due to finical problems was forced to stop in Japan. Kipling then moved his family to the US and settled in Vermont. Kipling then wrote the Jungle Book 1&2. Four years later he moved back to England. Kipling had three kids: Josephine, John, and Elise. Josephine died of sickness at 16 and John was killed in battle. Kipling was a good friend with Theodore Roosevelt our 26th President. Rudyard Kipling died on his 44th anniversary, January 18, 1936.

If -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 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!

Summary

“If” is about a father telling his son things he needs to do in order to become a man. When his son accomplishes these things he will become a man. Kipling wrote this poem for his son. In stanza one Rudyard Kipling means, not to pay attention to false things said about you. Also, not to act too smart or wise. In stanza two he says don’t make dreams or thoughts your master or aim. Meet with triumph and disaster and treat them both the same. If you don’t get controlled by dreams or thoughts because if they break you will be broken. In stanza three Kipling is saying don’t get over excited about your winnings. Then when you lose don’t breath a word about your lose. Hold on when you have nothing left. Finally, in stanza four he means if you are the highest rank don’t lose your common touch with our friends. Always try your best. Last, if you can do all these things you will be a man. The poem is manly about a father telling his son what he must do in order to become a man.

Analysis

The rhyme pattern in “If” is aaaabcbc. Looking back at it Rudyard Kipling said that “If” was just one giant run on sentence. Rudyard Kipling uses many literary devices. He uses couplet, which is a pair of rhyming lines. Like the words you and too in the first stanza. He also uses figure of speech, which is a way of using words so that they mean something other than what they seem to say, and which an intended meaning is clear. In the second stanza Kipling calls Triumph and Disaster two imposters. Rudyard also used rhyme, which is a repetition of sound. In every stanza he always starts with If. Last, he uses stanza, a fixed number of sentences in each stanza. In each stanza he has eight lines.