Chris Howard
English1
Mr.Bregren

“Poetry Sweet”

Rudyard Kipling was born December 30,1865 in Bombay. He was a journalist before he started writing famous poem like “If”. This poem was written in 1895.”If” was inspired by his friend Dr. Leander Starr Jameson, because he never lost his dignity and courage when he led a failed British raid against the Boers. The theme and the overall message in the poem is “Courage”. In the poem “If”, the theme can be shown through form, sound devices, as well as figurative language.
Through form and sound devices, he gives the reader a better understanding of the theme. “If” is a traditional poem written in iambic pentameter with strict rules such as number of lines and pattern. Iambic pentameter writing style consist of lines of five “feet” two syllable units formed from an initial unstressed syllable and second stressed syllables.The poem have four stanzas and eight lines in each stanza that rhymes to the pattern abab cdcd. One example of how the poem gives the reader a better understanding of the theme is by using repetition. He repeats “if” followed by ideas related to courage. In stanza one Kipling states how to be courageous by keeping your head up when everybody is putting the blame on you. Alliteration is used to give the readers a better understanding of courage. There are two examples of alliteration the first occurs in stanza two "With worn out tools" and the second simply states "Sixty seconds".
Figurative language was used by using personification in “If”. One example is in