IF

(Virginia Graham)

If you can go unswerving as an arrow,
Favouring neither foreigner nor friend,

If though the gate be straight, the pathway narrow,
You can pursue it to the very end,

If you can wait for those who lag behind you,
If you can gather strangers to your breast,

If the sorbate traveller can find you
A home from home, an harbinger of rest.

If you are guided by some heavenly power,
Lit from within by a celestial light,

If you can keep your bearings hour by hour
However grey the day or dark the night,

If you can nurse the iron in your soul,
Finish the journey you have well begun,

Live on these lines till you have reached your goal,
You’ll be a tram, my son.