Does anyone recall learning this in 8th grade?

[senior citizen]

Does anyone recall learning this poem in 8th grade???


If

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'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

[kittygilchrist]

inspiring. I need that.

[senior citizen]

inspiring. I need that.


Everyone can use a little inspiration at times......

[jbdlfan]

Here's what I teach in 8th grade now......times have changed!
Marshall Davis Jones : "Touchscreen" - YouTube (http://youtu.be/GAx845QaOck)
Touchscreen

Introducing the new Apple I person complete with multitouch
doesn’t it feel good to touch?
doesn’t it feel good to touch?

compatible with your iPod and your iPad
doesn’t it feel good to touch?
doesn’t it feel good to touch?
your life is an app
your strife is an app
your wife is an app
doesn’t it feel good to touch?
doesn’t it feel good to touch?

my world has become so digital
I have forgotten what that feels like it was difficult to connect when friends formed clicks
now it’s even more difficult to connect
now that cliques form friends
But who am I to judge
I face Facebook
more than books face me
hoping to
book face-to-faces
update my status
420 spaces
to prove I’m still breathing
failure to do this daily
means my whole web wide world would forget that I exist
but with 3000 friends online
only five I can count in real life
why wouldn’t I spend more time in a world where there are more people that ‘like’ me
Wouldn’t you?
Here, it doesn’t matter
if I’m an amateur person
as long as I have a ‘pro’ file
my smile is 50% genuine
50% genuine HD
You would need Blu-rays to read what is really me
but I’m not that focused
10 tabs open
hopin’
my problems are resolved with a 1500 by 1600 resolution
provin’ there is an error in this evolution
doubled over we used to sit in treetops
till we swung down to stand upright
then someone slipped a disc
now we’re doubled over at desktops from the garden of Eden
to the branches of Macintosh
apple picking has always come at a great cost
iPod iMac iPhone iChat
I can do all of these things without making eye contact
We used to sprint to pick and store blackberries
now we run to the sprint store to pick Blackberries
it’s scary
can’t hear the sound of mother nature speaking over all this tweeting
and our ability to feel along with it is fleeting
You’d think these headphone jacks inject into flesh
the way we connect to disconnect
power on
till we are powerless
they have us love drugged
Like e-pills
so we E*TRADE
email
e-motion
like e-commerce
because now money can buy love
for 995 a month
click
to proceed to checkout
click
to x out where our hearts once where
click
I’ve uploaded this hug I hope she gets it
click
I’m spending time with my wife I hope she’s logged in
click
I’m holding my daughter over a Skype conference call while she’s crying in the crib in the next room
click
so when my phone goes off of my hip iTouch iTouch iTouch and iTouch because in a world
Where laughter is never heard
And voices are only read
we’re so desperate to feel
that we hope our Technologic can reverse the universe
until the screens touch us back
and maybe one day they will
when our technology is advanced enough …
to make us human again

[senior citizen]

Here's what I teach in 8th grade now......times have changed!
Marshall Davis Jones : "Touchscreen" - YouTube (http://youtu.be/GAx845QaOck)
Touchscreen

Introducing the new Apple I person complete with multitouch
doesn’t it feel good to touch?
doesn’t it feel good to touch?

compatible with your iPod and your iPad
doesn’t it feel good to touch?
doesn’t it feel good to touch?
your life is an app
your strife is an app
your wife is an app
doesn’t it feel good to touch?
doesn’t it feel good to touch?

my world has become so digital
I have forgotten what that feels like it was difficult to connect when friends formed clicks
now it’s even more difficult to connect
now that cliques form friends
But who am I to judge
I face Facebook
more than books face me
hoping to
book face-to-faces
update my status
420 spaces
to prove I’m still breathing
failure to do this daily
means my whole web wide world would forget that I exist
but with 3000 friends online
only five I can count in real life
why wouldn’t I spend more time in a world where there are more people that ‘like’ me
Wouldn’t you?
Here, it doesn’t matter
if I’m an amateur person
as long as I have a ‘pro’ file
my smile is 50% genuine
50% genuine HD
You would need Blu-rays to read what is really me
but I’m not that focused
10 tabs open
hopin’
my problems are resolved with a 1500 by 1600 resolution
provin’ there is an error in this evolution
doubled over we used to sit in treetops
till we swung down to stand upright
then someone slipped a disc
now we’re doubled over at desktops from the garden of Eden
to the branches of Macintosh
apple picking has always come at a great cost
iPod iMac iPhone iChat
I can do all of these things without making eye contact
We used to sprint to pick and store blackberries
now we run to the sprint store to pick Blackberries
it’s scary
can’t hear the sound of mother nature speaking over all this tweeting
and our ability to feel along with it is fleeting
You’d think these headphone jacks inject into flesh
the way we connect to disconnect
power on
till we are powerless
they have us love drugged
Like e-pills
so we E*TRADE
email
e-motion
like e-commerce
because now money can buy love
for 995 a month
click
to proceed to checkout
click
to x out where our hearts once where
click
I’ve uploaded this hug I hope she gets it
click
I’m spending time with my wife I hope she’s logged in
click
I’m holding my daughter over a Skype conference call while she’s crying in the crib in the next room
click
so when my phone goes off of my hip iTouch iTouch iTouch and iTouch because in a world
Where laughter is never heard
And voices are only read
we’re so desperate to feel
that we hope our Technologic can reverse the universe
until the screens touch us back
and maybe one day they will
when our technology is advanced enough …
to make us human again


Well, my own 8th grade was the year 1959. A long long long time ago.

What can I say???

[DaleMN]

I got that Kipling poem in a graduation card from a girl, my first true love actually, that I broke up with in an ungentlemenly-like manner. It still makes me feel like a cad when I see that poem. :(

[senior citizen]

I got that Kipling poem in a graduation card from a girl, my first true love actually, that I broke up with in an ungentlemenly-like manner. It still makes me feel like a cad when I see that poem. :(

Aw....sorry. She might have been "the one" for you.....but you will never know. Just teasing.

As another person said, it was inspirational.....to me anyway.
More so than a "rap" kind of poem. I guess we were educated at the very end of the "old fashioned" kind of schooling.........

[rubicon]

Congratulazioni (congrats) if you got that poem in 8th grade and by got I mean received and understood it. Buona giornata (have a nice day):D

I;m just joshing.

[senior citizen]

Congratulazioni (congrats) if you got that poem in 8th grade and by got I mean received and understood it. Buona giornata (have a nice day):D

I;m just joshing.


I wish my dad had taught me the Italian language.
He did once offer to teach me when I was five years old.
But I stamped my feet and stated, "No, I'm an American".
Can you believe that? It would have been much easier at a young age.
That would have been 1950.

Believe it or not, we 8th grade girls did "get it".......as we had to memorize the poem "IF". We understood it, even though we were not young men.

cento anni.........may you have “100 years”.

The Italian expression for '100 years' is cento anni - which is pronounced [chen-to annee].
However, during natural speech, the last vowel sound on cento is often dropped so it sounds more like cent'anni.

One well-known example of the phrase cent'anni being used as a salute (in the context of an Americanized portrayal of Italian mob families) is a discussion between several characters during a particular scene of The Godfather Part II, which reads as follows:

""MICHAEL: Cent' anni!

Everyone: Cent' anni!

DEANNA: What's "Chen dandy"?

FREDO: Cent' anni -- It means a hundred years.

CONNIE: It means we should all live happily for a hundred years -- the family. That'd be true if my father were still alive.""

[jbdlfan]

Well, my own 8th grade was the year 1959. A long long long time ago.

What can I say???

I didn't mean that to be critical, just an observation about how much things have changed. Sorry if I offended you in any way, not my intention....

[twinklesweep]

Does anyone recall learning this poem in 8th grade???


If

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'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



I am sorry to say that the first thing that comes to my mind is a comedy routine I heard so long ago that I don't remember the name of the comedian:

"Do you like Kipling?"
"I don't know. I never Kippled!"

Ouch!

I do remember the poem from way back when, more likely high school than eighth grade, and surprisingly my response to it today is not very different from what it was then.

The positive point, to me, is that we must live our lives not based on the manipulations of others but rather to take responsibility for ourselves.

However, there are what strike me as negative qualities in the poem too that I remember noticing back then as well as now. Again this is me, but I see a commendation for the chance to gamble (without regard to how our losses might result in serious problems for others), I see the positive point I wrote above taken to an extreme not quite at but bordering on isolation, I see a degree of chauvinism, and likely there is more.

And I do remember noticing these things back when I was 14 or 15 or 16 and discussing this poem in English class. I think now, as I did then, that Kipling related to a time that was different from the times of my life. And there's no right or wrong; this is just how I saw/see it.


I wish my dad had taught me the Italian language.
He did once offer to teach me when I was five years old.
But I stamped my feet and stated, "No, I'm an American".
Can you believe that? It would have been much easier at a young age.
That would have been 1950.

Funny, if that is the right word, how different our lives were growing up that for sure in part made us who we are today. My Dad knew seven languages, and even as a young child I wanted to learn at least one of them (other than English) and hopefully more, to be able to talk to the people I met when they visited my parents who knew other languages and not English (rather than my just being able to sing songs in a few languages the meanings that I never understood--and all of which I forgot). But my Dad said, "No, you are an American. Your language is English." I wonder if he would feel the same way today?

[chachacha]

since the thread has diverted to a study of foreign languages, which i love ( i really love the poem, IF also!) i recommend a computer program called Yabla for many different languages...you can check it out for free on Yabla - Language Immersion - Learn Languages with Authentic Videos (http://www.yabla.com) but one must pay to actually take the lessons. we use it in our italian class and get a discount :)

[DougB]

I had enough trouble just trying to understand "A Whiter Shade of Pale".