. "\"If\u2014\" is a poem by British Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling, written in 1895 and first published in Rewards and Fairies, 1910. It is a tribute to Leander Starr Jameson. The poem is written in the form of paternal advice to the poet's son, John. As poetry, \"If\u2014\" is a literary example of Victorian-era stoicism. John was killed at the Battle of Loos in 1915. The well-known Indian historian and writer Khushwant Singh claims that Kipling's \"If\u2014\" is \"the essence of the message of The Gita in English.\""@en . .