Confused and Frustrated: It’s Named “IF” by Rudyard Kipling

Journal entry...

4-27-2011

Day 10

  I’m quite confused about the real meaning behind this poem we were assigned to write a reaction paper about. It’s named “IF” by Rudyard Kipling. I read the poem nearly twenty times before finally asking my cellmates what they thought. The two that read it both gave me different answers, so I figured it had to be one of those times where there were no wrong answers. Personally I’d like to know what the writer’s meaning was when he wrote it before I would write what my reaction to it was. I decided to wing it anyhow seeing as no one knew for sure what the author meant. I think overall I didn’t do too badly, but I also don’t feel like such a short assignment should be this time consuming. This is a lot of time I could have used to write my autobiography, but I was too frustrated to do that either.

(Counselor Note – So… Do you always need absolutes?) 

~J. Doe