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PeAcE WiTh GuNs

Friday, April 28, 2006

Two Pieces Of Advice

[ 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 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 all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath 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!



[ Hamlet ] - Shakespeare

Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar:
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in,
Bear't that th' opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are most select and generous, chief in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all- to thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell. My blessing season this in thee!

7 Comments:

  • A very enjoyable read that was...Excellent choice of poem to publish on your post. It's amazing how some pieces of work have the ability to lift ones spirit and place it high up in the air....:) I don't know much about you, and gathered a liltle info from your posts and profile...all in all I enjoyed reading your posts and could relate to some of the issues you expressed; especially the one of not wanting to work more than office hours and missing your long treasured freedom. That's the case with my life too, but I guess one has to strive to accomplish dreams... Anyways, you had a left a comment on my blog sometime ago and that's how I came across your site. Take care...

    By Blogger ~manndeep~, at 2:46 am  

  • Hi Manndeep,

    Thanks a lot for the comment and the kind words. I'm also glad you liked my postings. Its generally my views that I type in when i blog. Some people agree to it, some don't. 'twas the case with my post on Swades. You can read the comments section which was just as interesting as the post itself.

    As for the poetry, I remember having the excerpt from Hamlet as a poem in my school textbook. I remembered some of it from back then. "IF" was recommended by a friend some time ago. I now have little printouts of these 2 poems stuck on my computer monitor at work [:-D]

    Do keep reading.

    -PeAcE
    --WiTh
    ---GuNs

    By Blogger GuNs, at 4:31 am  

  • ahhaa!

    Your profile is pretty elaborative!

    Smiles
    Nishu
    (^_^)

    By Blogger Nishu, at 11:34 am  

  • Two of my favorite pieces too!

    By Blogger Usha, at 1:16 pm  

  • Nishu : LOL, I have a habbit of writing elaborative stuff. LOL, in school, everyone cringed to write 1.5 page long essays. I competed with another guy and we wrote upwards of 6 or 7 pages each time. [:-P]All the more trouble for the teacher !

    Usha : You have read the entire Hamlet? I just had these lines in school as poetry. I remember those words after so many years. Abso well written, kudos to shakey !

    -PeAcE
    --WiTh
    ---GuNs

    By Blogger GuNs, at 12:30 pm  

  • I Love "IF" by Rudyard Kipling - amongst my favourite poems of all times - I have it in my study room and read it quite often! :D

    Nice one there - yes, as you might have guessed, I am going through your past posts! :D

    Nirwa

    By Blogger Nirwa Mehta, at 9:33 am  

  • Nirwa : Thanks for the comment. I have small printouts of these 2 poems stuck onto my monitor at work. LOL, yeah, onto my monitor. My cubicle is the only one full of printouts. None of them are related to work, of course. I've got a calendar of current and past months, a collage of pics of buddies in training, one wallpaper with the FREE BIRD lyrics on it, a Calvin and Hobbes wallpaper and a collection of Calvin & Hobbes quotes.

    My best attempt at posting was, I guess my first REAL post here - the one on Swades. Check that out for sure.

    -PeAcE
    --WiTh
    ---GuNs

    By Blogger GuNs, at 1:28 pm  

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