The English writer Rudyard Kipling was a leading exponent of British imperialism. His famous poem “The White Man’s Burden” originally appeared in the popular American magazine McClure’s with the subtitle “The United States and the Philippine Islands.” Given this subtitle, the poem can be seen as a direct appeal to American men to join their British counterparts in the global imperial project.
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—
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 hope to nought. . . .
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,” McClure’s Magazine, February 1899, 290–91.
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