If you can hold a stead upon your angry tongue, Choking on someone else’s ill informed untruth, If you can stay revenge’s readied hand, when it seems about to strike, Against lies and defamation, and slander so uncouth. If your body does not falter at the ebbing tide, Though emotions cramp every stroke, When you see the white horses, on which Neptune’s reapers ride, It is strength, not fear that they envoke.
If you can hope – and not let flights of fancy fester into despair If you can cry internal rivers, but your cheeks don’t feel a tear, If you can be broken down to rubble, yet show no sign of disrepair. A bastion against an enemy that will never see your fear If you can carry on under great duress, Unbowed, erect and tall, And not give one crack of faith to stress And though your grip is lost, refuse to fall.
If you count upon your blessings true, But neither want or pray for more, And if they one day should be wrenched from you Not look to settle fates uneven score. If you can endure the bleakest winter cold, And not collapse in the hottest summer sun Retaining the will to act both true and bold, And when faced with evil, never think to run.
If you can keep your counsel in moments mad, Offer help to those filled with hate and comments vile If for every face around you sad, You wish only to place upon a smile. If you want for nothing more than simple peace In a world that burns with fire and abject rage Then yours is a world worth dying for And – which matters more – you’d be the saviour of our age.
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