VOCABULARY

Make allowance — ‘to make allowance’ for something means to accept it even if it’s flawed or

problematic

Doubt — the feeling of not trusting yourself or someone / something else

Impostor — a fake person who pretends to be someone they’re not

Knaves — dishonest or sneaky people

The Will — a reference to ‘willpower’, the motivational force in a human’s psychology — the

idea of ‘the Will’ is important in philosophy and religion, many people debate over whether we

have ‘free will’ (complete freedom of choice in our actions in life) or whether our lives are

deterministic (already set out for us, either by religious or social mechanisms)

Virtue — purity and goodness

STORY/SUMMARY

This is a lyric poem, so there’s not exactly a story to it — instead, it’s an exploration of an idea.

In this case the speaker is addressing the reader, giving us some wise advice. This advice takes the

form of how to be, but also what to avoid in life — and to not copy the bad behaviour of others.

In Stanza 1 Kipling says to stay strong and clear-headed even if others are hostile towards us, to

trust ourselves even when others don’t (but also to accept that they might doubt us), to encourage

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patience, to not lie even if people lie about us, to not hate others even if we are hated ourselves,

and finally to not boast or seem too perfect and clever about all of our strengths — we shouldn’t

‘look too good, nor talk too wise’.

Stanza 2 gives advice on our thoughts and actions: we should think and dream, but not allow

these to control us, and we should not be too influenced by moments of extreme success

(Triumph) or failure (Disaster). We should also be able to withstand seeing our truths manipulated

by others, and our hard work coming undone or being broken. When something we’ve put effort

into has broken, we should work to fix it again.

Stanza 3 explores the idea of perseverance — never giving up. Kipting extends the concepts of

success and failure, saying that we should be able to lose everything we’ve earned and still have

the motivation to build it back up, as well as never complaining to others about the loss. We

should push our nerves and emotions as far as they’ll go, and then some more — by making our

willpower stronger than anything else.

Finally, in Stanza 4 is about achieving greatness, but staying humble — Kipling says we should

keep our individuality and goodness when talking to crowds, as well as staying in touch with

everyday people even when achieving high status. We should make ourselves liked by everyone,

although not the point of obsession. If we can fill even the smallest amount of time with achieving

our long term projects and goals, then ‘the Earth’ is ours — and we will be fully adult.