In Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If” he creates a story without actually telling a story. Kipling finds a way to speak to his audience in the poem using real life examples, but conveying a different type of message through the words written down. This poem is absolutely extravagant all the way through the last stanza. The beginning of the poem draws the reader’s attention with its elegant way of reassuring the audience to keep your head held high in all situations (good or bad). As we look further down the poem we notice that Kipling starts every sentence in each stanza off with the word “if”. By using the word “if” at the beginning of each sentence you can clearly see Kipling is referring to the cause and effect theory. This theory illustrates our lives by explaining if we can achieve point A then we will get result B. As you read further down the poem the last stanza says:
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with King-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! (Kipling, Rudyard)
From the last stanza we can tell that Kipling is telling the reader that if you can keep your composer when everyone else is against you, you can live a fulfilling life. In the second line of the last stanza Kipling is explaining that if you have already achieved something great in your life time allowing you the opportunity to walk with a King (or a higher powered individual) without forgetting who you are you can be great. In the third line of the last stanza Kipling begins to explain to the reader to stand up for what you believe in even if your closest friend doesn’t agree with what you’re saying as well as your enemy. Going further down the last stanza to the fourth line Kipling states “If all...