Lyrics
[instrumental bridge]
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 them
up with worn-out tools:
[instrumental bridge]
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!’
[instrumental bridge]
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!
[outro]
. . .
[end]
[instrumental bridge]
And—which is more—you’ll
be a Man, my son!
[outro]
. . .
[end]
