If Group

Question:

laceyluvsnick
laceyluvsnick
Student
High School - 12th Grade

What was Rudyard Kipling's inspiration for "If"?

As in, was the poem fo John, to give him expectations? Or to the world.

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Posted by laceyluvsnick on Thursday April 17, 2008 at 5:38 PM and tagged with if, inspiration, john kipling, rudyard kipling.

Answers:


  1. sullymonster Teacher
    Community / Jr. College

    Kipling once wrote this about his little poem:

    They were printed as cards to hang up in offices and bedrooms; illuminated text-wise and anthologised to weariness. Twenty-seven of the Nations of the Earth translated them into their seven-and-twenty tongues, and printed them on every sort of fabric.

    Kipling was fully aware of the influence of his poem, and seems to be pleased with how it was accepted and used.  He may have wrote it originally for a children's book, but like so many of his works, the messages and themes are appropriate to the world at large.  Although he never specifically says that he meant it to be a message for all people, I think that fact that he published it at all suggests he did mean to spread the word.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/if/

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    Posted by sullymonster on Tuesday April 29, 2008 at 4:47 PM