![]() Almost overnight, the poem was hailed as a magnificent tribute to many of humankind's greatest virtues-staying composed under stress, remaining humble when victorious, never despairing when defeated, and always retaining honor and authenticity. The poem, which is in many ways one long ifferism, consists of four eight-line stanzas that read like one continuous thought. Kipling's poem was not published until 1910, when it appeared in Rewards and Fairies, a collection of short stories and verse. The entire affair aroused enormous patriotic fervor in England, and Kipling was obviously caught up in the temper of the times. The raid, led by an English nobleman named Leander Starr Jameson, was in many ways a military disaster, but Jameson became a hero in the British press for his courage in attempting the raid and his willingness to take responsibility for the failure of the mission. ![]() In 1896, thirty-one-year-old Rudyard Kipling was an internationally-renowned poet and story-teller when he wrote a poem with a one-word title: "If." The poem was inspired by "The Jameson Raid," an 1895 military action in the Boer War in South Africa. ![]()
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