CHRISTIANE POOLEY - IF

If

Christiane Pooley

Oil painting

40 x 30 cm

2023

Price upon request

This is a poem that Rudyard Kipling dedicated to his son John, who had just entered adolescence. Written at the very beginning of the 20th century, it celebrates the virtues of stoicism in the Victorian era, where it was considered proper to hold back one's emotions and dominate one's passions. This society distinguished the strong, intrepid and hardened man from the weak man, slave to his feelings. Today, the interpretation is different. We are sensitive beings, and it is normal to express our emotions. We do not always choose what happens to us but we always have the power to choose how to react to it.