Rudyard Kipling's masterpiece "If" could only be born out of tragedy. He suffered a cruel and troubled childhood and, as an adult, the tragic loss of two of his three children. The exquisite beauty that flows from this sad but amazingly uplifting poem is inescapable. Rudyard Kipling's excellence in writing was rewarded when he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907.

A similar beauty is found in the poem "Do It Anyway" by Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa, a Catholic nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity, served the "poorest of the poor" in Calcutta, India most of her adult life. Mother Teresa's sacrificial life to humanity was recognized when she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and was canonized as Saint Teresa in 2016.

The parallels between these two works speak volumes about the character of these two giant historical figures. Like Mother Teresa, Rudyard Kipling, through perseverance, faith and inner strength, overcame seemingly impossible obstacles in life. While some continue to criticize his religion and complicated social values, Rudyard Kipling remains one of the greatest literary figures of all time.

IF
By 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 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!


Do It Anyway
By Mother Teresa

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of having selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some friends and genuine enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and sincere, people may deceive you;
Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight;
Create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today will often be forgotten;
Do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough;
Give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

A ten-line poem with syllable count 2-4-6-8-10-9-7-5-3-1.
For purposes of this writing, "poem" is pronounced as one syllable.

Artwork from Google Images.

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