At last, Kipling is saved from the ravages of political correctness

The Daily Telegraph ^ | May 13, 2003 | Andrew Roberts

[Graewoulf]

Would you mind posting the entire "burden" poem? I do so love political incorrectness!

[Miss Marple]

What a wonderful article! I will be searching for that book!

I have always loved Kipling, unrepentant Anglophile that I am, and I am glad to see him getting his due!

[Tax-chick]

Thanks for posting this! I love Kipling, and will run-not-walk to the library for this new biography!

[TheWillardHotel]

Rudyard Kipling
If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

[P.O.E.]

I suppose this picture from the "Just So Stories" ("The Crab That Played With The Sea") could be misinterpreted

I was a big Kipling fan as a kid.

Still am, in fact (that is, I'm still a Kipling fan and I still act like a kid).

[JenB]

In a sophomore history/culture class, I wrote a paper on Kipling basically stating he was the best English writer of the last two hundred years. I still can't believe I didn't get flunked in that class.

Thanks for posting this - I'll keep an eye out for this biography.

[1rudeboy]

A Son

My son was killed while laughing at some jest. I would I knew
What it was, and it might serve me in a time when jests are few.

Epitaphs of the War, 1914-18

[Billthedrill]

a gung-ho wider-still-yet-wider imperialist would never have chosen Recessional as the title of his poem to mark Queen Victoria's ebullient 1897 Diamond Jubilee, in which Kipling warned of the day when "Far-called, our navies melt away/ On dune and headland sinks the fire".

He was the poet laureate at the time, and this little verse just about got him ridden out of Great Britain on a rail. You cannot read it in the context of the Diamond Jubilee without thinking that Kipling was absolutely fearless. Here, at the height of the second British Empire, and apropos of our own time in the United States, I give it in full:

God of our fathers, known of old,
Lord of our far-flung batle-line,
Beneath whose awful Hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine -
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget!

The tumult and the shouting dies;
The Captains and the Kings depart:
Still stands thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget!

Far-called, our navies melt away;
On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget!

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,
Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law -
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget!

For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard,
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding, calls not Thee to guard,
For frantic boast and foolish word -
Thy mercy on Thy People, Lord!

It caused an absolute furor. The Edward Saids of the world disapproved then just as they disapprove of Kim now. And for the same reason - it's just too complex for them.

[Under the Radar]

Great thread, thanks for posting this!

[Cicero]

Kipling was a great writer. It's good to see his poetry often posted here.

For anyone who hasn't read it, may I warmly recommend "Kim," which IMHO is one of the great novels written in English.

I also strongly recommend "Captains Courageous" for the young adult reader, and "The Light that Failed" for the strong of heart who don't need an upbeat ending.

There are many more good things, but no one should miss "Kim."

[DPB101]

A balanced view from a native:

Dadabhai Naoroji: The Benefits of British Rule, 1871

An American doesn't show the restraint of the Brits:

Josiah Strong on Anglo-Saxon Predominance, 1891

[1rudeboy]

An Only Son

I have slain none except my mother. She
(Blessing her slayer) died of grief for me.

Epitaphs of the War, 1914-18

[Tax-chick]

Bless your heart, Bill! Time to sit on the kids and start reading them the Collected Poems again!

[NovemberCharlie]

The White Man's Burden

By Rudyard Kipling

McClure's Magazine 12 (Feb. 1899).



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 hope to nought.

Take up the White Man's burden--
No iron 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!) toward 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 will or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent sullen peoples
Shall weigh your God 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 judgment of your peers.

[B-Chan]

Hurrah! My favorite poet in English!

And a big two-finger salute to Mr. Holroyd, spouse of the aptly-named anti-American bigot Ms. Drabble. How many Nobel Prizes have you two got, Mikey me lad?

Kipling forever... "lest we forget".

[ellery]

bttt

[Seti 1]

Q: Do you like Kipling?

A: I don't know. I've never kippled.

[Tax-chick]

spouse of the aptly-named anti-American bigot Ms. Drabble

You're joking, right? That's too much!

Got the book on request from the main library with no wait list - two days to my local branch!

"A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a Smoke!"

[Graewoulf]

Thank you November Charlie. I like to see the whole text before I comment.

This is an interesting poem. Kipling repeatedly exorts the reader to: "Take up the White Man's burden!", but does not clearly state what that burden is. Thus, each reader is left with his or her definition of what that burden is.

In my humble, but ALWAYS correct opinion, one thing that "the white man's burden" is not is to "live and let live."