It Can Be Done - Poems of Inspiration | Page 4

yet he must do his
best to see the grounds for both. He must not be deceived into thinking
either triumph or disaster final; he must use each wisely--and push on.
In all things he must hold to the golden mean. If he does, he will own
the world, and even better, for his personal reward he will attain the full
stature of manhood.
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 imposters 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!
Rudyard Kipling.
From "Rudyard Kipling's Verse, 1885-1918."
INVICTUS
Triumph in spirit over adverse conditions is the keynote of this poem of
courage undismayed. It rings with the power of the individual to guide
his own destiny.
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I
thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but
unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the
shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me
unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the
scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
William Ernest Henley.

IT COULDN'T BE DONE
After a thing has been done, everybody is ready to declare it easy. But
before it has been done, it is called impossible. One reason why people
fear to embark upon great enterprises is that they see all the difficulties
at once. They know they could succeed in the initial tasks, but they
shrink from what is to follow. Yet "a thing begun is half done."
Moreover the surmounting of the first barrier gives strength and
ingenuity for the harder ones beyond. Mountains viewed from a
distance seem to be unscalable. But they can be climbed, and the way
to begin is to take the first upward step. From that moment the
mountains are less high. As Hannibal led his army across the foothills,
then among the upper ranges, and finally over the loftiest peaks and
passes of the Alps, or as Peary pushed farther and farther into the
solitudes that encompass the North Pole, so can you achieve any
purpose whatsoever if you heed not the doubters, meet each problem as
it arises, and keep ever with you the assurance It Can Be Done.
Somebody said that it couldn't be done,
But he with a chuckle replied

That "maybe it couldn't," but he would be one
Who wouldn't say so
till he'd tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his
face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing

That couldn't be done, and he did it.
Somebody scoffed: "Oh, you'll never do that;
At least no one ever has
done it";
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,
And the
first thing we knew he'd begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a
grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he
tackled the thing
That couldn't be done, and he did it.
There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands
to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you one by
one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a
bit of a grin,
Just take off