White&Man’s&Burden&
&
Many&people&in&the&industrialized&nations&of&the&world&thought&they&had&a&duty&to&spread&
Western&ideas&and&knowledge&around&the&world.&&People&were&considered&inferior&if&their&religion&or&
culture&differed&from&that&of&Europe&and&America.&&&
&
“The&White&Man’s&Burden”&&&
British&Poet&Rudyard&Kipling&is&widely&considered&to&be&the&most&powerful&and&influential&
voice&in&favor&of&imperialism.&&The&title&of&one&of&his&bestFknown&poems&is&“The&White&Man’s&Burden.”&&
This&phrase&is&often&used&to&sum&up&the&Western&attitude&toward&nonFWestern&people.&&&
Many&Europeans&agreed&with&what&Kipling&wrote.&&They&thought&that&people&outside&of&
Europe&and&America&were&primitive&barbarians&and&they&needed&the&help&and&guidance&of&more&
civilized&nations.&&These&wrong&ideas&caused&Europeans&to&justify&changing&the&ways&of&life&for&
millions&of&people.&
&
The$White$Man’s$Burden$
(First&four&stanzas)&
!
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.
