If

Question 1

Repetition of ‘If’

Answer 1

• repetition - singles it out and draws importance to it
• suggests power by the repetition and the indent, creating a crescendo to the final line, becoming a ‘man’
• it is in the conditional — challenges the reader and forces them to reflect if they could be a ‘man’ in Kipling’s eyes

Question 2

Who’s the Author

Answer 2

Rudyard Kipling

Question 3

What’s the structure like

Answer 3

• Rigid -> reflects the militant attitude and pressure he put on his son
• Iambic Pentameter -> makes speaker sound lively. Also links to Shakespeare -> we should listen to him
• simple alternating rhyme scheme (ABABCDCD) -> reflects regimented life he wants his child to have. It also makes it a more friendly and musical tone for talking to his child

Question 4

Quote to show how he has personified success and failiure

Answer 4

• ‘meet with Triumph and Disaster’
• ‘treat those two imposters just the same’
• personifies them
• unfazed by success and unfazed by failure
• calling them ‘imposters’ implies there might be draw backs
• Poem was actually inspired and written for Starr Jameson who ruled over the South African Colony and was controversial in his involvement in the slave trade
• modern reader feels disgusted by this, supportive sentence to a racist that has been disguised as fatherly love to his son

Question 5

Use of metaphor

Answer 5

• ‘the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:’
• Metaphor: compares success to building something and failure as it being destroyed
• A real man is imagined to be a builder who is prepared to return and fix a broken house no matter what
• image of builder has a very masculine stereotype to it, echos the Stoic masculinity that Rudyard wants for his son

Question 6

The final line of the poem

Answer 6

• starts with ‘And’, conduction: joins all the circumstances together
• ‘which is more’ : he thinks that being a man (what he says next) is more impressive than owning the world (previous stanza)
• ‘you’ll be a Man’ : capitalisation of M shows it’s importance, more than a gender, it’s an essential quality
• ‘My son!’: were are eavesdropping on a conversation between father and son, exclamation show excitement and triumph; setting up the expectation that his son will be a great man