Page By: Nathan Gantchev
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Rudyard Kipling Overview:
Rudyard Kipling lived in northern India for the first six years of his life. He grew up speaking Hindi, and he mixed easily with Indian subjects of the British Empire. After attending boarding school in England, he returned to India in 1882 and became a journalist and writer. Many of his works express his deep enchantment with India, but he also believed strongly in imperial rule.
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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 mark 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 he 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 cloke 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 proferred 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! |
Poem analysis:
In the poem “The White Man’s Burden” by Rudyard Kipling, the speaker says to “take up the white man’s burden”. This line symbolizes the duty of the European/Euro-American peoples (the “white men”) to bring order and enlightenment to distant lands. Specifically for the United States to colonize and establish imperialist rule in the Philippines.
In some ways Kipling’s idea of the necessity of foreign colonization is true. If non developed societies do not show sign of development, how will they ever advance forward? According to Kipling it was the “burden” of the white men to provide external aid to other underdeveloped foreign countries and stimulate social and economic growth. This concept of aiding other countries was a very moral idea however this was not really the prime motive for imperial countries to expand. US Motives:
As for why the US wanted an Empire, it was for mixed reasons. Part of the reason was that they had been goaded into the Spanish War by publishers Hearst and Pulitzer with their yellow journalism and jingoist slogans. These urged America to not be pushed around by Spain (it wasn't trying) and to free the poor citizens of Cuba.
Map Of US Rule in the Philippines: |