From the recording Doggerel ditties

Lyrics

Poem written by my late father Ralph Merton (1914 -2008) in India during WW2, modelled on Kipling's "If".

When you can segregate your powers of reason
From what you feel and treat the two apart,
Rejecting acts of faith as acts of treason
By which the brain surrenders to the heart;

When you can tune yourself to not believing
And, though you don’t believe, pretend you do,
And learn to live your life throughout conceiving
A host of plans and know they won’t come true;

When you can face the undoubted facts presented
That wars, injustice, lies are here to stay,
And still devote yourself, no less contented
To doing what you can from day to day;

Nothing will then have power to disillusion,
Though dreams alone will serve to bring relief;
You will have learned the secret of the children;
That playing bears does not require belief.