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It may seem obvious, given that the whole poem consists of a father imparting advice to his son, but “If—” has a tone best characterized as paternal. Paternal is a word that has two contrasting connotations, both of which apply to Kipling’s poem. On the one hand, paternal refers to a fatherly nature that is warm, loving, and supportive. Every statement the speaker makes throughout the poem seems earnestly intended to support his son’s development into a well-adjusted and responsible adult. The speaker is clearly motivated by love and wishes his son a prosperous future. As he puts it in the closing lines (lines 31–32):

     Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   
         And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

The speaker’s desire for his son to have all the world at his fingertips is quintessentially paternal. Yet even as the speaker clearly wants the best for his son, from another perspective his expectations for his son’s character may seem unreasonably high. This brings us to the second connotation of paternal, which can imply a fatherly nature that is authoritative and imperious. Though not exactly harsh with his words, the speaker does have a rigid and highly aspirational idea of what makes a man. His son may find his father’s lofty ideal difficult to achieve.

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