A Preface Comments

You surely know how to wrote, I like each and every poem of yours

People enjoy poetry for varying reasons of course. Personally, I seek poems that resonate with my experiences, or mindset, or beliefs- that perhaps find words for concepts that I have felt, but could never articulate. A common theme of Kipling's poems, of which this is a definitive example, is that one should recognize and know the flaws in oneself, and instead of being daunted by them, use that knowledge as a starting place from which to work to overcome them. He realized that there is no Triumph without Struggle, and indeed that simply continuing to strive, no matter what, is a triumph in and of itself. This poem has long been a favourite of mine because it elucidates that aphorism so eloquently.