Question

What does poet say about patience in the poem if explanation?

Answer 1

The poem's speaker says that if you can keep your head while those around you lose theirs; if you can trust yourself when others doubt you; if you can be patient and not lose your temper; if you can handle being lied about but not lie yourself, and being hated but not hating yourself; if you do not look too good or talk too wise:

If you can dream but not let those dreams cloud your reason; if you can think but still take action; if you can deal with both triumph and disaster; if you can handle it when others twist your truths into lies, or take the things you devoted your life to and turn them from broken into alive again:

If you can take all of your winnings and bet them in one fell swoop and lose them all and then keep it a secret; if you can use your heart and muscles and nerves to hold on even when there is only Will left:

Answer 2

The poem is essentially lines of advice from an older man to a younger man—perhaps even the older man's "son," as is mentioned in the last line of the poem. The voice in the poem has much to say about the virtues of patience. Many lines can be construed as advocating for how patience can see us through the ups and downs of life. Kipling deals a lot in opposites in the poem: sometimes life will reward us, he writes, and sometimes life will punish us. We will make fortunes and lose them, make friends and lose them, build up our bodies but eventually lose our strength. If we can be patient as these waves wash over us—"If you can keep your head" (line 1)—we can stay in control of our lives. Elsewhere, the speaker in the poem suggests that we "wait and not be tired by waiting" (line 5). All things must pass, Kipling seems to suggest, and patience will help as negative things pass and keep us tempered even in our most positive moments. When we master patience, we can master the world and even our own tricky selves.