who wrote the poem of what if
Ifâ  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, Ifâ is a literary example of Victorian-era stoicism. John was killed at the Battle of Loos in 1915.