Rudyard Kipling, The White Man's Burden (1899)
This famous poem, written by a British poet, was a response to the American take over of the Philippines after the Spanish-American War.
Take up the White Man's 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.
Take up the White Man's 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 another's profit,
And work another's gain.
Take up the White Man's 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 hopes to nought.
Take up the White Man's burden--
No tawdry 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 mark them with your living,
And mark them with your dead.
Take up the White Man's 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 he us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"
Take up the White Man's burden--
Ye dare not stoop to less--
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloke your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your gods and you.
Take up the White Man's burden--
Have done with childish days--
The lightly proferred 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!
As you read this poem, notice:
* references to imperialism
* passages that describe Europeans/Non-Europeans
* highlight passages you find confusing
Once you have read the poem, go to this link:https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/rudyard-kipling/the-white-man-s-burden
and hit the “Themes” tab.
Read the sections on “Colonialism and Imperialism” and “Racism” and then answer the following questions:
1. How does Kipling portray Europeans? Non-Europeans?
Kipling portrays Europeans as having a moral obligation to “civilize” and make better the populations of non-European people. He depicts Europeans sacrificing their comfort and sending their “best” to fight. this suggests that Europeans are superior and, because of that, are responsible for governing those deemed less developed.
Non-Europeans are depicted using demeaning and stereotypical language - “half-devil and half-child” - which reinforces the idea of Europeans being superior and other populations in need of European intervention.
2. Which motive(s) (Nationalism, Economic, Missionary/Civilizing, Social Darwinism, White Supremacy) for imperialism does Kipling seem to present?
Kipling’s poem primarily presents the Missionary and White Supremacy motives for imperialism and while other motives are present, they are not the main focus of the poem.
The “White Man’s Burden” in and of itself is a direct connection of the mission to “civilize” these “inferior” populations. the language used to describe these indigenous people in a deeming way clearly reflects a sense of racial white superiority. This underlines the poem’s justifications for imperialism.
3. Why do you think Kipling is for Imperialism?
based on “The White Man’s Burden” Kipling seemed to have a belief that Western civilizations are superior to any other. With this belief, he justified the violent things he suggested by implying that as Europeans, they have a duty to make every nation they encounter identical to the European nations, no matter the cost. Kipling also seemed to a have a sincere (although misguided) belief in the benefits of colonialism. the poem’s argument, however flawed, likely reflected a genuine belief that colonial rule could bring progress and development to colonized territories and the rest of the world.
“The Black Man’s Burden”: A Response to Kipling
In February 1899, British novelist and poet Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem entitled “The White Man’s Burden: The United States and The Philippine Islands.” In this poem, Kipling urged the U.S. to take up the “burden” of empire, as had Britain and other European nations. Theodore Roosevelt, soon to become vice-president and then president, described it as “rather poor poetry, but good sense from the expansion point of view.” Not everyone was as favorably impressed as Roosevelt. African Americans, among many others, objected to the notion of the “white man’s burden.” Among the dozens of replies to Kipling’s poem was “The Black Man’s Burden,” written by African-American clergyman and editor H. T. Johnson and published in April 1899. A “Black Man’s Burden Association” was even organized with the goal of demonstrating that that mistreatment of brown people in the Philippines was an extension of the mistreatment of black Americans at home.
________________
Pile on the Black Man’s Burden.
'Tis nearest at your door;
Why heed long bleeding Cuba,
or dark Hawaii’s shore?
Hail ye your fearless armies,
Which menace feeble folks
Who fight with clubs and arrows
and brook your rifle’s smoke.
Pile on the Black Man’s Burden
His wail with laughter drown
You’ve sealed the Red Man’s problem,
And will take up the Brown,
In vain ye seek to end it,
With bullets, blood or death
Better by far defend it
With honor’s holy breath.
Pile on the Black Man's Burden,
His back is broad though sore;
What though the weight oppress him,
He's borne the like before.
Your Jim-crow laws and customs,
And fiendish midnight deed,
Though winked at by the nation,
Will some day trouble breed.
Pile on the Black Man's Burden,
At length 'twill heaven pierce;
Then on you or your children
Will reign God's judgments fierce.
Your battleships and armies
May weaker ones appall,
But God Almighty's justice
They'll not disturb at all.
Source: H.T. Johnson, “The Black Man’s Burden,” Voice of Missions, VII (Atlanta: April 1899), 1. Reprinted in Willard B. Gatewood, Jr., Black Americans and the White Man’s Burden, 1898–1903 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press), 1975, 183–184.
Once you have read the poem, go to this link: https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/h-t-johnson/the-black-man-s-burden
and hit the “Themes” tab.
Read the section on “Racism and Imperialism” and then answer the following questions:
4. Who are the “black men” Johnson is talking about in the first line?
He is referring to the Black people subjected to oppression and injustice within the United States and colonized territories.
5. Is Johnson in favor of American imperialism? How do you know?
From this poem, it seems that Johnson is very against American imperialism. The entire poem questions American imperialist tactics and it is obvious from the poem that he opposes Imperialism in every way.
6. What does he believe America should fight for instead?
He believes that America should fight for justice within the country and create better lives for the people that they already have control over.
7. Looking at this from a 21st Century perspective, in your opinion, which poem has a more modern view of the world? Why?
Johnson's poem has a more modern and progressive perspective that is similar to the 21st century. Even now, some of the things happening in the U.S. are going backward from some of the things that Johnson says in his rebuttal poem.