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“The White Man’s Burden”: Kipling’s Hymn to U.S. Imperialism
George Mason University ^ | 02/01/1899 | Rudyard Kipling

Posted on 02/05/2005 5:37:04 PM PST by NMC EXP

In February 1899, British novelist and poet Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem entitled “The White Man’s Burden: The United States and The Philippine Islands.” In this poem, Kipling urged the U.S. to take up the “burden” of empire, as had Britain and other European nations. Published in the February, 1899 issue of McClure’s Magazine, the poem coincided with the beginning of the Philippine-American War and U.S. Senate ratification of the treaty that placed Puerto Rico, Guam, Cuba, and the Philippines under American control.

Theodore Roosevelt, soon to become vice-president and then president, copied the poem and sent it to his friend, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, commenting that it was “rather poor poetry, but good sense from the expansion point of view.” Not everyone was as favorably impressed as Roosevelt. The racialized notion of the “White Man’s burden” became a euphemism for imperialism, and many anti-imperialists couched their opposition in reaction to the phrase.

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: The United States & The Philippine Islands, 1899.” Rudyard Kipling’s Verse: Definitive Edition (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1929).


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: empire; imperialism; iraq; kipling; whitemansburden
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To: Phsstpok

Agreed.


61 posted on 02/05/2005 6:59:04 PM PST by cyborg (Department of Homelife Security threat level is GREEN.)
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Comment #62 Removed by Moderator

To: NMC EXP

I like Kipling ....I'm sure anyone who knows me here is absolutely shocked by that admission.

He knew his tribe.

W/O looking ahead, I'm going to bet the race hustlas are downthread preening....hope I'm wrong.


63 posted on 02/05/2005 7:00:25 PM PST by wardaddy (I don't think Muslims are good for America....just a gut instinct thing.)
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To: John_Wheatley

You sound like my mother!


64 posted on 02/05/2005 7:00:33 PM PST by cyborg (Department of Homelife Security threat level is GREEN.)
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To: John_Wheatley
The British Empire was not a mistake, without it the world would be infinitely worse, but no empire lasts for ever.

Did I say that? No. I said that it was not a case of the Brits going out sayign "Ah what can I do to make the world better today". No, they went to enrich themselves and many times they ended up causing problems. On the whole they ended up on the positive side but still many of the problems created by that empire linger on -- the cross-tribal national divisios in Africa, Northern Ireland, Pakistan, Kashmir, Iraq (a creation ofthe brits), the Durand line in Afghnanistan-Pakistan, the Palestine problem etc.

And if you are implying that America does not act in it's self-interest then you are wrong. American policy has benefits for the world, and it's democracies, but it would do nothing if it did not help itself first.

Did i say that? No. My post was not directed at American policies at all, just at the poem.
65 posted on 02/05/2005 7:01:31 PM PST by Cronos (Never forget 9/11)
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To: cyborg

well, actually, I'd put the Belgians at the bottom looking at what they did to the Congo. the French are pretty close though! What with Indo-China (Vietnam, Cambodia, etc), Algeria, West Africa etc. etc.


66 posted on 02/05/2005 7:02:36 PM PST by Cronos (Never forget 9/11)
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To: NMC EXP
"The Butterfly that Stamped" by Rudyard Kipling is great little story full of much wisdom.

Kipling was an excellent writer.
67 posted on 02/05/2005 7:02:56 PM PST by Red Sea Swimmer (Tisha5765Bav)
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To: Cronos

Definately agree on that...I wonder what King Leopold's hell is like? Hmmm....


68 posted on 02/05/2005 7:03:52 PM PST by cyborg (Department of Homelife Security threat level is GREEN.)
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To: cyborg

By the way

I LOVE your mother.

And if that's you... pardon me, but... Just DAMN


69 posted on 02/05/2005 7:04:06 PM PST by Phsstpok ("When you don't know where you are, but you don't care, you're not lost, you're exploring.")
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To: Phsstpok
It doesn't make 'white men' better than other humans, merely the ones who got to a civilized state first.

Well, actually, "White" men didn't get to a civilised state first -- it was "brown" and "yellow" men in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Canaan, India, China who reached there first. But then, if by Whtie you mean Caucasian, you're partly correct as Mesopotamians, Canaanites and indians were and are caucasians and the Egyptians were partly caucasian.
70 posted on 02/05/2005 7:04:58 PM PST by Cronos (Never forget 9/11)
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To: Phsstpok

LOL that is me.


71 posted on 02/05/2005 7:04:59 PM PST by cyborg (Department of Homelife Security threat level is GREEN.)
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Comment #72 Removed by Moderator

To: John_Wheatley

America is great because it has most every nation's best and brightest talent thanks to all the opportunity. If a nation's best leaves, not much is left behind but I'm just speculating.


73 posted on 02/05/2005 7:09:58 PM PST by cyborg (Department of Homelife Security threat level is GREEN.)
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To: Cronos

Anyone especially interested in this subject might check out Niall Ferguson's `Empire'. (Conservative Book Club, on sale) I was surprised to learn that one of Ghandi's favorite poems was Kipling's 'If'.
Did you know that the Dutch sailed up the Thames at one point on time, causing the English to merge economically with them?
Not to defend them, but a couple outstanding Indian practices the British prohibited was burning widows on pyres and leaving female infants exposed to die.
And one of the legacies of the empire upon which the sun did not set, as the Viceroys ground their heels into the faces of our poor little brown brothers sitting in darkness: representative democracies.
Right, then.


74 posted on 02/05/2005 7:12:31 PM PST by OkieDoke
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To: Cronos

Anyone especially interested in this subject might check out Niall Ferguson's `Empire'. (Conservative Book Club, on sale) I was surprised to learn that one of Ghandi's favorite poems was Kipling's 'If'.
Did you know that the Dutch sailed up the Thames at one point on time, causing the English to merge economically with them?
Not to defend them, but a couple outstanding Indian practices the British prohibited was burning widows on pyres and leaving female infants exposed to die.
And one of the legacies of the empire upon which the sun did not set, as the Viceroys ground their heels into the faces of our poor little brown brothers sitting in darkness: representative democracies.
Right, then.


75 posted on 02/05/2005 7:13:27 PM PST by OkieDoke
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To: NMC EXP
If I misunderstood your meaning I beg you pardon.

I have to forgive you, because I've done it myself more than once.:)

76 posted on 02/05/2005 7:15:51 PM PST by xJones
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Comment #77 Removed by Moderator

To: OkieDoke; cardinal4
Did Kipling write this?

"Oh, the monkeys have no tails in Zamboanga, the monkeys have no tails in Zamboanga. The monkeys have no tails, they were bitten off by whales. Oh the monkeys have no tails in Zamboanga."

78 posted on 02/05/2005 7:20:47 PM PST by Ax (I learned all I needed to know about Islam during my two years in Saudi Arabia.)
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To: YaYa123
Might interest you to know that "If" was written about George Washington.

It is one of the "bracket poems" to "Brother Square-Toes" in Rewards and Fairies, one of Kipling's two 'children's books' about English history that are really not for children at all (he said as much in a letter to IIRC Cecil Rhodes.)

Kipling often "bracketed" his short stories with two poems that would introduce and sum up the short story.

If you read "Brother Square-Toes" you will see that it is about George Washington making hard decisions on behalf of the fledgling American government . . . after a dreadful confrontation with nay-sayers in his own cabinet, he tells Cornplanter, "My brothers know it is not easy to be a Chief."

On reflection, maybe even closer to President Bush than we thought. Somebody ought to send him the story to go with the poem (I'm sure people have sent him the poem alone!)

79 posted on 02/05/2005 7:23:18 PM PST by AnAmericanMother (. . . Ministrix of ye Chace (recess appointment), TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary . . .)
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Comment #80 Removed by Moderator


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