The White Man's Burden by Rudyard Kipling
"The White Man's Burden" is a poem by Rudyard Kipling, written in 1899, that addresses the theme of imperialism and the perceived responsibilities of Western powers toward colonized nations, specifically in the context of the Philippines following the Spanish-American War. The poem calls upon Americans to embrace the duty of ruling over what Kipling describes as "new-caught, sullen peoples," suggesting that this role is both noble and burdensome. It reflects the mindset of the era, where some figures, like Theodore Roosevelt, viewed imperialism as a manifestation of "manifest destiny," a belief in the United States' obligation to guide less developed societies toward progress.
Kipling's verses underscore a paternalistic attitude, portraying the subjects of empire as in need of guidance and civilization. The poem explores themes of service, sacrifice, and the complexities of power dynamics, emphasizing that those who take on this "burden" may not reap the benefits of their efforts. It intertwines biblical references and a rhythm reminiscent of hymns, inviting readers to contemplate the moral implications of imperialism. While the poem has been both influential and controversial, it serves as a historical artifact that reflects the imperialist attitudes of the time and invites critical examination of colonial narratives.
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The White Man's Burden by Rudyard Kipling
First published: 1899; collected in The Five Nations, 1903
Type of poem: Lyric
The Poem
The poem’s full title is “The White Man’s Burden: 1899, The United States and the Philippine Islands.” Written at the end of 1898, it contains an exhortation to Americans to pick up the burden of Imperialism and to take over from Spain the rule of the Philippine Islands, which the United States had just captured in the Spanish-American War. Many Americans intensely disliked the idea of an American empire. Imperialism was associated in many American minds with the corrupt politics of European nations such as Great Britain, France, and Spain; to such minds the United States represented a new start in human history—“the last, best hope of man,” as Lincoln had said—and therefore the United States should not make the same mistakes that other nations had made. Mark Twain, for example, declared that if the United States took over the Philippines and suppressed native independence movements there, the American flag’s colors should be changed from red, white, and blue to black and white, and the field of stars should bear instead a skull and crossbones.
There were, however, a number of Americans, Theodore Roosevelt most prominent among them, who believed that it was America’s obvious fate, its “manifest destiny,” to take up responsibility for less technologically advanced peoples, to help them progress to a higher stage of civilization. Rudyard Kipling, a friend of Theodore Roosevelt, wrote for these Americans “The White Man’s Burden.” Roosevelt received an advance copy of the poem and sent it on to his friend Henry Cabot Lodge with a note calling the poem “rather poor poetry, but good sense for the expansionist standpoint.”
In the first stanza, white men are advised to send their best sons to serve the “new-caught, sullen peoples,/ Half devil and half child.” The entire emphasis in the stanza is on service to others: “To wait in heavy harness.” The second stanza expands on this theme and advises the servants of Empire how to behave to those they serve, with “patience” and open, simple speech. White men are also advised to “veil the threat of terror,” that is, to make it clear that they have many dangerous weapons to enforce their will. Nevertheless, it is not polite to insist in a bullying manner on power; Theodore Roosevelt’s famous version of this advice was “to speak softly, and carry a big stick.”
In the third stanza, the theme changes slightly. The task is again defined as curing famine and disease, but Kipling makes it clear that those who benefit from the Empire will ultimately ruin anything that is done for them. The fourth stanza continues the theme of service, the humble serving of others: “No tawdry rule of kings,/ But toil of serf and sweeper.” Kipling asserts that the accomplishments of the white builders of ports and roads in the hot lands will not provide benefit to the white men who oversee the building: “Go make them with your living,/ And mark them with your dead!” He strikes a note curiously like self-pity in the fifth stanza. The Bible is also evoked: the behavior of the Hebrews in the wilderness after the Exodus from Egypt, the complaining of the freed but hungry hordes as they reproach their leader, Moses: “Why brought ye us from bondage,/ Our loved Egyptian night?”
It is in the sixth and seventh stanzas that Kipling finally declares what the real purposes of Empire are: the honor of God, self-testing, rites of passage, and the ordeals of manhood. The white man’s acts will be weighed by the “silent, sullen peoples,” he states, as will everything the white man cries or whispers. In the seventh and final stanza, Kipling exhorts his audience to “Have done with childish ways”—“search your manhood,” he says, and the poem’s final line declares what the result of taking up the “White Man’s burden” will be: “The judgment of your peers!”
Forms and Devices
The rhythm throughout “The White Man’s Burden” is what is called in hymn writing “short measure”—that is, iambic trimeter. All the odd lines have feminine endings; all the even lines end with strong stresses. There is no enjambment in the poem; all the lines are heavily end-stopped. In fact, as many critics have insisted about most of Kipling’s poetry, the rhythm is “jingly.” Although this charge is not entirely fair—Kipling is sometimes a master poet capable of producing haunting lines and subtle rhythms—Kipling quite frequently tried consciously to write “jingly” poems. He once said that when he started to write a poem he would sing a lively hymn tune or a music-hall song to himself and then try to fit words to the melody and the catchy rhythm.
In the poem, the reader finds the constant use of biblical diction, especially the archaic personal pronoun “ye” throughout, nine times in all. The use of “ye” also makes it clear that the speaker of the poem is addressing an audience or, at any rate, more than one person, since “ye” is the archaic second person plural. For modern tastes there is too much use of exclamation points, which in contemporary English are kept usually for screams of surprise or terror. It is employed in hymns quite frequently, which may indicate Kipling’s source for the use of this device.
There is an artful use of inverted syntax in the last stanza:
Comes now, to search your manhood
It is almost as if the postulant for manhood honors sees something approaching, strains his eyes to determine what it might be, and finally perceives it looming up, in sentence-final position, as “the judgment of your peers!” This use of syntax is effective both as a dramatic postponement of an important element and as a forceful ending for the poem.