Just prior to entering Wimbledon’s Centre Court players pass beneath 2 lines of poetry written by whom?
Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865 – 1936) was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist. He was born in India, which inspired much of his work.
In the tunnel that leads to Wimbledon’s Centre Court, the players pass beneath two lines of poetry by Rudyard Kipling which reads,
“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same.”
This passage is from the inspirational poem 'If' which first appeared in his collection "Rewards and Fairies" in 1909. This poem is regularly voted as Britain’s most popular poem and it occupies a status similar to that of Robert Frost’s “ The Road Not Taken” in the United States.
The beauty and elegance of "If" contrast with Rudyard Kipling's largely tragic and unhappy life. The poem is inspirational, motivational, and a set of rules for adult living. It contains mottos and maxims for life, and the poem is also a blueprint for personal integrity, behaviour and self-development.
Rudyard Kipling achieved fame quickly which was based initially on his first stories and poems written in India. This gave him great popularity with the British public.
He turned down many honours offered to him including a knighthood, Poet Laureate and the Order of Merit, but in 1907 he accepted the Nobel Prize for Literature. Kipling's wide popular appeal survives through his notable other works, The "Jungle Book" (1894) the novel, "Kim" (1901), and "Just So Stories" (1902).
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