Poem If Essay Example for Free

Poem If Essay Mr. Curran The poem If by Rudyard Kipling is a very interesting poem. The main idea of the poem is a father speaking to a son. We do not know who the father is or who the son is, but we know that is the relationship between the speaker and the person being spoken too. There is a lot of different interpretations that can be made about this poem also. Some people think that it is God speaking to Jesus, or God speaking to someone through prayer. I personally think that it is a very wise man speaking to his son while he is on his deathbed. There are also many literary devices used. Like connotation and denotation, the literal and the figurative meaning. When the poet writes certain lines I think of it as the literal meaning and then of the figurative meaning, and see what best fits the poem. The line Yours is the Earth is a good line to do this to. The literal meaning would be that the person has the whole Earth, like he owns it. The figurative meaning would be that the person has the whole world at his disposal; he can do whatever he wants and take the world by storm. It can also be another way of saying do not take anything for granite. There are many other lines that make me think this way too. If can be an outline for any person who wants to succeed in life and be a better man. The poem is basically saying that if you follow all of these things that are mentioned, then you will be a true and respected man. I believe that this is true because there are many life lessons inside the poem that are very true. Turn the other cheek is a common lesson that is mentioned in the poem and in real life. He also gives lessons like do not show your failure, get back up as if it never happened. This is the most important lesson to me, and if you can perfect it, then you will never show fear and you will be respected. You will become a better man. As I get older I learned these lessons more and more. If we can teach these attributes to younger children, then we will have a lot of better men in this world. We can’t always have what we want, and we shouldn’t take what we