152 Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden”

Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden” (1899)

Introduction to Primary Source:

As the United States waged war against Filipino insurgents, the British writer and poet Rudyard Kipling urged the Americans to take up “the white man’s burden.”

Document:

Take up the White Man’s burden—

Send forth the best ye breed— Go send 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—

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) to the light:

“Why brought ye us from bondage, “Our loved Egyptian night?”

Take up the White Man’s 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!

Source: Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden,” Literature (February 4, 1890), 115. Via Google Books.