With sixty seconds' worth of distance run

Posted by Victoria S Dennis on May 09, 2005

In Reply to: With sixty seconds' worth of distance run posted by Jan Lindkvist on May 09, 2005

: In Kiplings If what does:

: "With sixty seconds' worth of distance run --"

: mean?

: --

: If

: 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 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 Disaster
: And treat those two imposters just the same;
: If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
: Twisted 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 winnings
: And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
: And lose, and start again at your beginnings
: And never breathe a word about your loss;
: If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
: To serve your turn long after they are gone,
: And so hold on when there is nothing in you
: Except 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 minute
: With 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!

::: "fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds' worth of distance run" means "make good use of every second in a minute".