the white man's burden

The White Man’s Burden
 
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 make 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 !) towards the light:-
“Why brought ye 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 cloak 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 proffered laurel,
    The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
    Through all the thankless years,
Cold-edged with dear-bought wisdom,
    The judgement of your peers.
 
1899
United States and Philippines
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• I placed this poem in my blog because it will upset many, people who are stopped by the title and will not discover what is happening within.
  
• I placed this poem in my blog because it is “based” as the term is understood today. He is that man, any man, who is unafraid of what others say.
  
• I placed this poem in my blog because Kipling is a great poet and storyteller. I first encountered him in high school come way of Kim.

In the speech, he refers to Kimba, his character in The Jungle Book. Kipling felt like an outsider in the United States and went back to England.