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Original poster

Alternative endings to rudyard Kipling 'If'

28 replies

reikizen · 03/05/2017 19:01

I enjoy the poem but have an obvious problem with the 'you will be a man, my son' ending. Does anyone have any suggestions for female alternatives?

OP posts:
Asmoto · 03/05/2017 19:24

Gender neutral: 'You will be an adult, my child'

Doesn't have quite the same ring to it, alas, and doesn't scan.

TeiTetua · 03/05/2017 19:21

Marie Stopes actually suggested an alternative ending to Kipling. Her idea might have been good feminism, but it also showed her unfortunate (but common in her day) racism:
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 you will lead the race o'er ground you've won.

He politely told her to eff off.

AssassinatedBeauty · 03/05/2017 19:02

"You will be a woman, my girl"?