If

Question

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 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!

"If" by Rudyard Kipling

Question
Use the poem to answer the question.

Which answer choice explains an accurate conclusion based on the poem’s structure?

(1 point)
Responses

It is a litany poem organized into four quatrains that gives advice to the reader.
It is a litany poem organized into four quatrains that gives advice to the reader.

It is a litany poem in which the speaker, a father, uses second-person narration to give advice to his son.
It is a litany poem in which the speaker, a father, uses second-person narration to give advice to his son.

It is a variation on the traditional sonnet form in which the speaker talks directly to the reader.
It is a variation on the traditional sonnet form in which the speaker talks directly to the reader.

It is a sonnet that follows an ABAB rhyme scheme and uses second-person narration.
It is a sonnet that follows an ABAB rhyme scheme and uses second-person narration.

Answer 1

The correct answer choice that explains an accurate conclusion based on the poem's structure is:

It is a litany poem in which the speaker, a father, uses second-person narration to give advice to his son.

This choice aptly captures the poem's format and intent, as "If" is indeed structured as a series of conditional statements (a litany) delivered in the second person, addressing the speaker's son directly and offering life advice. The poem does not adhere to the structure of a sonnet, nor is it organized into quatrains with a consistent rhyme scheme as implied in some of the other options.