TIMES HAVE CHANGED

    I have recently achieved my 95^th year as nonagenarian and I started to reminisce when I was a high school senior. I still remember my English teacher who was teaching literature and we were focusing on poetry.  She captured my interest particularly in Rudyard Kipling’s poem IF. It’s remarkable how vivid my memory is from that class and how much I enjoyed it.   Even at this stage of my life I still revere those days in her class.  Yes, times have changed.  Kipling had written IF as a dedication to his son. I realize today that I was very naïve to his orientation as a writer. He was born1865 in the Bombay Presidency of British India and died in London, England at age 70 in 1936. He was a product of the Victorian British Empire. One can appreciate that there were contrasting views of him for much of the 20^th century. So, when I read his poem today, I can understand why a feminine version of IF has become more receptive. Undoubtedly, the Women’s Movement is still blossoming.  Despite the pandemic either version is an inspiration to young people today. I guess my nostalgia has clouded my thinking because as a high school student those many years ago, I did not feel the impact of social changes that were beginning to occur, particularly, regarding the women’s movement.  So, when I read a feminine version of his poem recently, it was a surprise.

BY  ELIZABETH LINCOLN OTIS

(With apologies to Mr. Rudyard Kipling)

If you can dress to make yourself attractive,

Yet not make puffs and curls your chief delight.

If you can swim and row, be strong and active,

But of the gentler graces lose not sight.

If you can dance without a craze for dancing,

Play without giving play too strong a hold,

Enjoy the love of friends without romancing,

Care for the weak, the friendless and the old.

 If you can master French and Greek and Latin,

And not acquire, as well, a priggish mien,

If you can feel the touch of silk and satin

Without despising calico and jean.

If you can ply a saw and use a hammer,

Can do a man’s work when the need occurs,

Can sing when asked, without excuse or stammer,

Can rise above unfriendly snubs and slurs;

If you can make good bread as well as fudges,

Can sew with skill and have an eye for dust,

If you can be a friend and hold no grudges,

A girl whom all will love because they must.

 If sometimes you should meet and love another

And make a home with faith and peace enshrined,

And you its soul—a loyal wife and mother—

You will work out nearly to my mind

The plan that has been developed through the ages,

And win the best that life can have in store, you will be, my girl,

the model for the sages—A woman whom the world will bow before.

                                          Source:  Father: An Anthology of Verse

(EP Dutton & Company, 1931)