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The White Mans Burden

• Rudyard Kipling
• 1899

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The White Mans Burdenby Rudyard Kipling
Take up the White Mans burden-- Send forth the
best ye breed-- Go, bind your sons to exile To
serve your captives need To wait, in heavy
harness, On fluttered folk and wild-- Your
new-caught sullen peoples, Half devil and half
child.
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The White Mans Burdenby Rudyard Kipling
Take up the White Mans burden-- In patience to
abide, To veil the threat of terror And check the
show of pride By open speech and simple, An
hundred times made plain, To seek anothers
profit And work another's gain.
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The White Mans Burdenby Rudyard Kipling
Take up the White Mans burden-- The savage wars
of peace-- Fill full the mouth of Famine, And bid
the sickness cease And when your goal is
nearest (The end for others sought) Watch sloth
and heathen folly Bring all your hope to nought.
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The White Mans Burdenby Rudyard Kipling
Take up the White Mans burden-- No iron rule of
kings, But toil of serf and sweeper-- The tale of
common things. The ports ye shall not enter, The
roads ye shall not tread, Go, make them with your
living And mark them with your dead.
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The White Mans Burdenby Rudyard Kipling
Take up the White Mans burden, And reap his old
reward-- The blame of those ye better The hate of
those ye guard-- The cry of hosts ye humour (Ah,
slowly!) toward the light-- Why brought ye us
from bondage, Our loved Egyptian night?
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The White Mans Burdenby Rudyard Kipling
Take up the White Mans burden-- Ye dare not
stoop to less-- Nor call too loud on Freedom To
cloak your weariness. By all ye will or
whisper, By all ye leave or do, The silent sullen
peoples Shall weigh your God and you.
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The White Mans Burdenby Rudyard Kipling
Take up the White Mans burden! Have done with
childish days-- The lightly-proffered laurel, The
easy ungrudged praise Comes now, to search your
manhood Through all the thankless years, Cold,
edged with dear-bought wisdom, The judgment of
your peers.
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Interpretations

• A straightforward analysis of the poem might
  conclude that Kipling presents a Eurocentric view
  of the world, in which non-European cultures are
  seen as childlike and demonic. This view proposes
  that white people consequently have an obligation
  to rule over, and encourage the cultural
  development of, people from other ethnic and
  cultural backgrounds until they can take their
  place in the world by fully adopting Western ways.

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Interpretations

• The term the white mans burden can be
  interpreted simply as racist, or taken as a
  metaphor for a condescending view of non-Western
  national culture and economic traditions,
  identified as a sense of European ascendancy
  which has been called cultural imperialism. A
  parallel can also be drawn with the philanthropic
  view, common in Kiplings formative years, that
  the rich have a moral obligation to help the poor
  better themselves whether the poor want the
  help or not.

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Interpretations

• Within a historical context, the poem clarifies
  the prevalent attitudes that allowed colonialism
  to proceed. Although a belief in the virtues of
  empire was wide-spread at the time, many
  dissented, most notably Mark Twain and Henry
  James. Much of Kiplings other writing does
  suggest that he genuinely believed in the
  beneficent role which the introduction of
  Western ideas could play in lifting non-Western
  peoples out of poverty and ignorance.

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Interpretations

• Lines 3-5, and other parts of the poem suggest
  that it is not just the native people who are
  enslaved, but also the functionaries of empire,
  who are caught in colonial service. This theme
  may also be contrasted with the Christian
  missionary movement, which was also quite active
  at the time in Africa, India, and other British
  and European colonies (e.g. the Christian and
  Missionary Alliance).

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Interpretations

• Some commentators point to Kiplings history of
  satirical writing, and suggest that The White
  Mans Burden is in fact meant to satirically
  undermine imperialism.