If by Rudyard Kipling is one of those seminal works of Victorian-era stoicism that never gets old no matter how many times I read it.
Perhaps it’s the lyrical, chant-like structure of the text – in combination with its powerful, prosaic language – which makes it so magnetic? Or maybe the philosophical content of Kipling’s poem is the major invisible hook? After all, If remains one of the most concise and profound illustrations of ‘big S’ Stoicism that I’ve come across in literature. (Regular readers will be painfully aware of my own obsession with that School…)
Continue reading “The Stoic Lens: Rudyard Kipling’s If”