Sean Boylan, Healer. All-Ireland winning manager, Leprachaun, Poet

**mossbags** Mon Aug 31, 2009 5:25 pm

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master,
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
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 - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son

**Jayo Cluxton** Mon Aug 31, 2009 5:30 pm

Hardly poet!! Rudyard Kipling - Brit war poet takes the kudos for this one ...

**bald eagle** Fri Sep 04, 2009 9:46 am

Also made famous by Mike Bassett during his term as England manager.

**mossbags** Fri Sep 04, 2009 10:14 am

Ricky Tomlinson's dodgy scouse accent ruined that particular rendition for me Eagle. Boylans gentle east midland lilt gives us I believe, the definitive version of this work of art

**6inarow** Fri Sep 04, 2009 10:58 pm

I've always preferred Des's reading myself:

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Sean Boylan, Healer. All-Ireland winning manager, Leprachaun, Poet

Sean Boylan, Healer. All-Ireland winning manager, Leprachaun, Poet

Re: Sean Boylan, Healer. All-Ireland winning manager, Leprachaun, Poet

Re: Sean Boylan, Healer. All-Ireland winning manager, Leprachaun, Poet

Re: Sean Boylan, Healer. All-Ireland winning manager, Leprachaun, Poet

Re: Sean Boylan, Healer. All-Ireland winning manager, Leprachaun, Poet

Re: Sean Boylan, Healer. All-Ireland winning manager, Leprachaun, Poet