If
A poem by Rudyard Kipling
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 imposters 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 wornout 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 breath 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!
Irish Potery Page
Here you will find the comprehensive links to Irish Poetry. Present-day Irish poets are believers - heretical believers,
maybe - but they have the spiritual buoyancy of a belief in something. The sort of belief I see in Ireland is a belief
emanating from life, from nature, from revealed religion, and from the nation. A sort of dream that produces a sense of
magic; indeed there are few signs of the awful sense of respect for words which poetry demands.
Irish poetry remains a creation happily, fundamentally rooted in rural civilization, yet aware and in touch with the elementals
of the future. Enjoy the subtle intricacies of Irish poetry here.
Major Poetry Resources And Links
By clicking here you will enter the global world of poetry,
with some interesting links and wonderful resources. Try it out.
Poetry Exchange
The aims and objectives of Poetry Exchange are to provide a medium for poets
to publish their works on World Wide Web and to promote as many individuals
and organisations as possible to access and use the Poetry Exchange. So, check it out!
Selected Poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Representative Poetry was produced on eight occasions from 1912 to 1967
by faculty who were formerly members of the University of Toronto combined Departments of English.
The English department wished, in the words of the General
Editors of the last edition of 1962-67 (termed the third edition) "to prepare its own
anthology of poetry for the use of students, particularly in the pass (now the general) course."
This is a selection of poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834).
Selected Poetry of Samuel Johnson
Representative Poetry - this teaching anthology came to be used widely outside Toronto in Canada
and in some US institutions. Check out Samuel Johnson's powerful poetry here.
Selected Poetry of John Donne
Sweetest love, I do not go,
For weariness of thee,
Nor in hope the world can show
A fitter love for me;
But since that I
Must die at last, 'tis best
To use myself in jest
Thus by feign'd deaths to die.[John Donne (1572-1631)]
Selected Poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley
The best prose is usually written be poets - Shakespeare wrote the best seventeenth century,
and Shelley the best nineteenth century. Shelley dreamt it. Now the dream decays.The props crumble.
Selected Poetry of George Gordon, Lord Byron
And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
Read more of the beautiful poetry by Lord Byron (1788-1824)
Selected Poetry of John Milton
Poetry is what Milton saw when he went blind. All English shop assistants are Miltonists.
A Miltonist firmly believes that 'they also serve who only stand and wait'.
Selected Poetry of John Keats
When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain;
When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love;--then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.
John Keats (1795-1821) lived for only few years in this world,
but his poetic genius and the strength of his love and feelings,
have left an indelible mark in the history of English poetry.
Selected Poetry of Mathew Arnold
A wanderer is man from his birth.
He was born in a ship
On the breast of the river of Time;
Brimming with wonder and joy
He spreads out his arms to the light,
Rivets his gaze on the banks of the stream.[Mathew Arnold (1822-1888)]
Selected Poetry of Robert Browning
The spiritual claims of the study of poetry are especially demanded in the poetry
of Robert Browning (1812-1889). Browning is generally and truly regarded as the most intellectual
of poets.No poetry in English literature, or in any literature, is more charged with discursive
thoughts than Browning's. So, come on! Lets go and read his poetic thoughts.
Selected Poetry of Lewis Carroll
This collection of poetry aims to please the ordinary educated reader.
If you enjoy these poems, you may also learn from them by growing interested in the poet, the period in
which he lived, and the intellectual and artistic traditions that define the poetic conversations the poet
had with his predecessors.
Selected Poetry of William Blake
These poems are edited for "the ordinary reader." Their texts are based on the books or manuscripts in which
they originally appeared, but their spelling has generally been normalized. Short references to these original
editions appear in the header of each poem, keyed to and where possible to an electronic edition of the full text
of the original works.
Selected Urdu Poetry
"Maana ke is zameen ko na gulzar kar sake,
Kuch khaar kam kar gaye guzre jidhar se ham."
Selected works of some of the greatest poets of Urdu poetry are produced here in these pages.
Amrita Pritum's Marsiyya to the Partition
Punjabi Home Page
Makhdoom's Quest For The Truth
Sufism : Journey Towards The Truth
Makhdoom's Quality Quest