If—

Kipling personifies Triumph and Disaster and labels them both impostors because they are short-lived phenomena. People may be satisfied with happiness and success, but this complacency can easily decrease opportunities to achieve a higher goal.

As an example of Kipling’s reach and the relevance of his belief, the following passage from “If—,” “If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster / And treat those two impostors just the same” (Lines 11-12), is inscribed above the doors to Wimbledon’s Centre Court. After the tournament, one player will experience triumph and the other disaster. The true winner is one who realizes that both outcomes can lead to complacency. Kipling wants us to treat these two “imposters” the same because, ultimately, they are two sides of the same coin.

Ancient stoics like Marcus Aurelius and Seneca suggested that we should welcome feelings of failure and disaster through a process called “negative visualization.” This is a method by which one visualizes how defeat might manifest itself. Negative visualization is a way for us to keep our optimistic prejudices under control. Likewise, we must keep our triumphant emotions in check. While it may feel great to be victorious, we should remain humble.

In the second half of the third stanza, the speaker encourages readers to fight through seemingly impossible emotional and physical difficulties.

The heart’s centrality is vital to our existence. It represents the core part or essence—“the heart of the matter.” Often opposite to rationality, the heart symbolizes not only centrality in general but the central wisdom of feeling.

One of the definitions for nerve in Merriam Webster is “power of endurance or control.” A person exhibiting “nerves of steel” would have nerve, meaning not easily upset or frightened.

Merriam Webster defines sinew as a “tendon”: “a tough cord or band of dense white fibrous connective tissue that unites a muscle with some other part […].” When plural, it’s the “mainstay”: “the chief supporting force.” Sinew therefore becomes the physical difficulty, and the heart and nerve represent the emotional difficulties: “If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew / To serve your turn… (Lines 21-22).” Here the speaker suggests that readers should keep their emotional and physical responses in check and use them to their advantage “long after they are gone” (Line 22) so that they do not lose their cool.

The capitalized word “Will” in the third stanza suggests the capacity by which a person decides on and initiates action (Lines 23-24). Will is the ability to deliberately control or do something or to restrain one’s impulses. The poem tells the reader that when they feel completely defeated or deflated, they can rely on their determination, or willpower, to hold on.

The unforgiving minute from the fourth and final stanza may be interpreted in several ways. In a literal sense, it suggests a monumental challenge that takes place in a short amount of time.

The unforgiving minute may also refer to one of many challenges that the reader must overcome. The poem specifies filling “the unforgiving minute / With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run” (Lines 29-30). The speaker implores readers to add worth to each and every minute, to make life count. Time wasted results in regret, and readers won’t be forgiven should they waste their lives on unworthy pursuits. To use a popular Latin phrase, carpe diem, readers should “seize the day” by making every minute worthwhile.