The British press, however, portrayed Jameson as a hero in the middle of the disaster, and the actual defeat as a British victory. This defeat increased the tensions that ultimately led to the Second Boer War. Leander Starr Jameson, who in 1895 led a raid by British forces against the Boers in South Africa, subsequently called the Jameson Raid. Its status is confirmed both by the number of parodies it has inspired, and by the widespread popularity it still enjoys amongst Britons.Īccording to Kipling in his autobiography Something of Myself, posthumously published in 1937, the poem was inspired by Dr. Like William Ernest Henley's ' Invictus', 'If- is a memorable evocation of Victorian stoicism and the 'stiff upper lip' that popular culture has made into a traditional British virtue. Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,Īnd - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son! With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, If all men count with you, but none too much, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch, If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, To serve your turn long after they are gone,Īnd so hold on when there is nothing in youĮxcept the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!' If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew If you can make one heap of all your winningsĪnd risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,Īnd lose, and start again at your beginnings Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,Īnd stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools: Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken If you can meet with Triumph and DisasterĪnd treat those two impostors just the same If you can think'and not make thoughts your aim If you can dream'and not make dreams your master, Or being hated, don't give way to hating,Īnd yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt youīut make allowance for their doubting too, If you can keep your head when all about you

Kipling poem if