About the author Rudyard Kipling was born on December 30, 1865 in Bombay (now Mumbai) India. His father was the principal and professor of Architectural Sculpture at Sir JJ School of Art in Bombay. At the age of six, Kipling left for England to obtain a formal British education. He returned to India in 1882 and obtained a job in a local newspaper. He is best known for his work, Jungle Book that narrated the story of a little boy Mowgli who was raised by wolves. The book captured the imagination of young and old and is regarded as a children’s classic. Many movies have been based on Kipling’s stories. He was the first English language writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1907. He died in 1936. Kipling regarded his initial years in India as paradise. He wrote, ’My first impression is of daybreak, light and colour and golden and purple fruits at the level of my shoulder’. This poem was first published in ‘Rewards and Fairies’ in 1910. It is in the form of advice to Kipling’s son, John on how to lead a life of integrity and virtue. It was inspired by Leander Starr Jameson, a Scottish- born politician and adventurer. The poem embodies the British stiff upper lip culture and transforms it into a national virtue. This is a didactic poem that conveys a specific moral message to its readers. If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance