If-, Rudyard Kipling

Question 1

Meaning (3x bullet points)

Answer 1

• Advice a father would give to his son
  
  • Growing maturity & shaping one’s identity
• Everything epitomises Britishness
• Stoicism (showing strength in face of hardship)

Question 2

Context

Answer 2

• Written when British empire at its peak
  
  • Victorian era: era of stoicism (endure pain/hardship without complaining)
  • “Stiff upper lip” = idiom
• Inspired by Sir Jameson = doing his best to conquer = noble despite fact he failed

Question 3

Significance of title?

Answer 3

‘If-‘ - Enigmatic title

• Conditional conjunction: Consequence/result = good or bad
  
  • Consequences of circumstances revealed on final line
    
    • = sense of drama & anticipation
• Hypen: Connects two ideas together

Question 4

Imagery #1

Answer 4

• Personification: “Triumph” & “Disaster”
  
  • Opposites
  • Promote caution: be unfazed by both & you’ll be same
• Described as “two impostors”
  
  • Success & failure = never what you think they are
    
    • Both hidden drawbacks = shouldn’t be too excited or disappointed
  • With these 2 words = comes disruption/change but both temporary

Question 5

Imagery #2

Answer 5

“heart and nerve and sinew”

• Rule of 3 + Polysyndeton
  
  • Emphasises all details necessary to make a man
  • Qualities man must have when others give up
    
    • i.e. Imploring reader to endure
  • Force all aspects of being to keep going even when gone
• Synecdoche (figure of speech - part of something represents the whole)
  
  • Poet saying “muscles” or “body,”
• “heart”
  
  • Emotion
• “nerve”
  
  • Bravery
• “sinew”
  
  • Muscles & physical power

Question 6

Tone

Answer 6

Hortatory (urgers reader to follow certain path) + forceful (didactic)

• Repetiton: “If”
  
  • ‘If-‘ begs question ‘is it possible’ =
  • Repetition forces reader to think whether or
    not they can live up to circumstances/conditions described
  • Sets a challenge we feel we should meet
• Fact consequences (reward) of circumstances held back until end
  
  • Symbol of having reached manhood
  • = sense of drama & anticipation, reader wants follow this certain path

Question 7

Structure #1

Answer 7

Iambic pentameter

1. Closest written form to speech
   
   1. Pace of stability/familiarity
   2. Rooted in confidence
2. 11 syllables & then 10 syllables (alternates) i.e. every odd line has additional syllable
   
   1. 1st line = obstacle (additional syllable)
   2. 2nd line = overcoming it (iambic pentameter)
   3. (Alternating rhyme scheme supports this)

Question 8

Structure #2

Answer 8

Structured as one long sentence = every line flowing into next

• Creates perpetual ‘enjambment’
  
  • Sense of pace, urgency & dynamism
  • Makes poem feel important
  • Didactic = Kipling trying to educate son & reader (aspire to become British gentleman)
• Implies spiritual and mental journey to manhood is long,
  complicated + challenging

Question 9

Name 5 possible comparisons

Answer 9

• “Prayer Before Birth”
• “Search for my Tongue”
• “Poem at Thirty Nine”
• “Piano”
• “Do not go gentle into that good night”

Question 10

“Prayer Before Birth” Comparison

Answer 10

• Both about cruel world
  
  • Kipling sees it as brave & admirable to face it
  • MacNeice suggests it’s better not encounter life at all

Question 11

“Search for my Tongue” Comparison

Answer 11

Both about what makes a person who they are

Question 12

“Poem at Thirty Nine” Comparison

Answer 12

Both poems are about parent-child relationship = been very influential

Question 13

“Piano” Comparison

Answer 13

Both about son’s relationship with parent

Question 14

gentle into that good night” Comparison

Answer 14

Advice to son gives to father = reverse of Kipling’s poem