If Trivia Quiz

Answer:

The poem was written around 1895 by Rudyard Kipling (1865 - 1936), although it was not published for another fifteen years, when it appeared in 'Rewards and Fairies'. Towards the end of his life, Kipling noted that the poem had been 'anthologised to weariness'. However, it was voted the United Kingdom's favourite poem in a BBC poll in 1996.

"If you can keep your head when all about you / Are losing theirs and blaming it on you" are the first two lines of the poem. The next two lines are, "If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, / But make allowance for their doubting too". It carries on, "If you can wait and not be tired by waiting". The next line is, "Or being lied about, don't deal in lies"; it is not 'If you can deal in lies'. It carries on, "Or being hated, don't give way to hating, / And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise".

The first two lines of the next verse are, "If you can dream - and not make dreams your master" and "If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim". Then the poem carries on with, "If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster / And treat those two impostors just the same". The poem carries on with, "If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken / Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools". The next two lines are, "Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, / And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools".

The third verse starts with, "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". There is no line which reads, 'If you can gamble your winnings'. The poem carries on with, "If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew / To serve your turn long after they are gone". There is no line which says, 'If you can hold onto nothing'. The next two lines of the poem are, "And so hold on when there is nothing in you / Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!"

The last verse starts with the lines, "If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, / Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch". There is no line which says, 'If you can hurt your friends'. The poem carries on with, "If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you", followed by, "If all men count with you, but none too much". There is no line reading, 'If you can count with men'. The poem continues with, "If you can fill the unforgiving minute / With sixty seconds' worth of distance run". It concludes with, "Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, / And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!"