If you can keep your head when all about youAre 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 DisasterAnd treat those two impostors just the same;If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spokenTwisted 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 winningsAnd risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,And lose, and start again at your beginningsAnd never breathe a word about your loss;If you can force your heart and nerve and sinewTo serve your turn long after they are gone,And so hold on when there is nothing in youExcept 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 minuteWith 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!
Text from gutenberg.org. Public domain in the US and UK.
Where it comes in the service
At a Catholic funeral Mass the readings must come from Scripture, so a poem belongs at the vigil or in the words of remembrance. A Church of England funeral can include poetry; the Church prints poems on its own funeral planning page. In a humanist ceremony, readings of poetry and prose follow the tribute.
Add If to your booklet, typeset in full, with the order of service around it. You can see the whole booklet before paying anything.
Put If in my bookletCopyright
If is in the public domain in the United States (first published 1910) and in the United Kingdom (author died 1936 (out of UK copyright since 1 January 2007)), so the words can be printed in a booklet without permission or a fee.
Printed here as in the source, except: Title: dropped the dash from 'If--' (printed 'If-' with a dash in 1910); Stanza 2 line 1: 'dream--and' replaced with 'dream, and'; Stanza 2 line 2: 'think--and' replaced with 'think, and'; Stanza 4 line 2: 'Kings--nor' replaced with 'Kings, nor'; Stanza 4 line 8: 'And--which is more--you'll' replaced with 'And, which is more, you'll'.