The White Man's Burden: The United States and the Philippine Islands

(1899)

“Rather poor poetry, but good sense from the expansion point of
view.” Theodore Roosevelt
An exercise before you start: Look at the picture (by Victor Gillam,
Judge magazine, 1 April 1899) comment on how it illustrates the
message in the poem.
 It is written by Rudyard Kipling, an Indian born English.
 A well-known example of Victorian imperialist jingoistic poetry.
---Rudyard Kipling is known to be a supporter of imperialism and
this famous poem illustrates his ideology (known as the poet of
imperialism)
 Overall, this poem is celebrated and used to justify the imperial
conquests of the West in the East.
 The phrase “the white man’s burden” became a euphemism for
imperialism.
 The imperialist interpretation of "The White Man's Burden"
(1899) proposes that the "white race" is morally obligated to rule
the "non-white" peoples of planet Earth, and to encourage their
progress (economic, social, and cultural) through settler
colonialism.
So
 Some of ideas it is
based on are:
cultural imperialism,
white superiority
and racism.
 This is a Eurocentric
poem and is based
on the idea of
civilizing mission:
What is it?
The mission
civilisatrice (in
English "civilizing
mission") was a
rationale for
intervention or colonization, purporting to contribute to the
spread of civilization, and used mostly in relation to the
Westernization of indigenous peoples in the 15th – 20th
centuries. It is predominantly based on the ideology that the
white Christian European people, therefore Western civilization,
is superior to any other, most notably the Eastern cultures and
peoples (you will see a further development of this idea in
Orientalism) and other people cannot rule themselves.
 Historical context: This poem is addressed to American governor
Theodore Roosevelt and encourages him to pick up the duty of
civilizing the uncivilized, formerly upheld by the British Empire
(remember this is the time period when America is emerging as a
world power while British Empire is in decline)
 Historical context: the Philippine–American War (1899–1902) and
Kipling encourages
American
imperialism and
colonization to be
established in the
Philippines while
warning about the
personal costs of this
enterprise.
 Since the late
nineteenth century,
"The White Man's
Burden" has served
the arguments and
counterarguments of
supporters and the
opponents of
imperialism and
white supremacy.
 The tone: jingoistic.
That is, the poem
smacks of cultural imperialism, with the superior English going
into a country of “sullen” brutes and imposing their civilizing
behaviors and institutions.
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 plainTo 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!
Summary
The poem is subtitled "The United States and the Philippine Islands".
The speaker says to take up the White Man's burden, which is to send
the best men abroad and your sons into exile to serve your captives.
These "newly-caught" people are wild, angry, and both devilish and
childish.
He repeats that you must take up this burden to be patient, to temper
your terror and hold back your pride, to use simple and frank words,
and to gain profit by others.
He repeats to take up the burden, which includes "the savage wars of
peace". You are to fill mouths with food and end famine and get rid of
sickness and disease. However, you must be careful to avoid, as your
goal draws near, falling into sloth and folly and watching your hopes
dissolve.
He repeats to take up the burden – not the work of Kings but of
common men, toiling like serfs. You will mark ports and roads with both
your living and your dead.
He repeats to take up the White Man's burden, which will include being
blamed by those you protect and being hated by those you guard. The
hosts will call out, asking why you brought them out of bondage toward
the light.
He repeats to take up the White Man's burden and never attempt to do
less. He warns you not to use Freedom as a cloak for weariness because
everything you do or say will be watched and weighed by the "silent,
sullen peoples" you are endeavoring to help.
He concludes by repeating to take up the White Man's burden and
leave your childish days behind you. You must ignore light, unwarranted
praise and seek the manhood that comes from many "thankless years"
and "dear-bought wisdom".

Analysis
“The White Man’s Burden,” published in 1899 in McClure’s magazine, is
one of Kipling’s most infamous poems. It has been lauded and reviled in
equal measure and has come to stand as the major articulation of the
Occident’s rapacious and all-encompassing imperialist ambitions in the
Orient. The poem was initially composed for Queen Victoria’s Diamond
Jubilee but Kipling decided to submit “Recessional” instead. Kipling,
observing the events across the Atlantic in the Spanish-American War,
sent this to then-governor of New York Theodore Roosevelt as a
warning regarding the dangers of obtaining and sustaining an empire.
Roosevelt would then forward the poem to his friend Senator Henry
Cabot Lodge, commenting that it was “rather poor poetry, but good
sense from the expansion point of view.”
The poem is seven stanzas long with a traditional rhyme scheme. It
exhorts the reader to take up the white man’s burden by sending the
best of their country to dark, uncivilized places of the earth. There
they should try to end famine and disease and serve their new captives
- the native peoples. The poem smacks of cultural imperialism, with the
superior English going into a country of “sullen” brutes and imposing
their civilizing behaviors and institutions. There is, of course, a mentality
of the Social Gospel idea of philanthropy, which said that the rich and
powerful had an obligation to assist the impoverished and the sick.
While not necessarily a bad idea, it was still underlain with assumptions
about racial superiority and helped to further more nefarious ways of
establishing hegemony.
The racism is quite manifest. The native, “captive peoples” are “sullen
peoples, / Half-devil and half-child”. They are being brought toward the
light, but act indignant and ungrateful toward those who want to better
them. Of course this attitude is understandable to us today – why would
colonial subjects avidly embrace the violent, debasing imperialist
impulses of other nations? – but Kipling seems to marvel that these
people would not jump up in thanks to their "civilizing" conquerors.
The racism and acclaim for imperialism cannot be ignored, but Kipling
did not intend the poem to be viewed as unqualified support of the
imperialist endeavor; in fact, a more careful reading will reveal that
Kipling was offering warnings to those who sought to undertake such
actions. He warns against allowing sloth and folly to take over; laziness
and debauched behavior can quickly derail noble goals. He also cautions
patience, and tries to make it clear that this work is difficult and
burdensome – it is the “toil of serf and sweeper,” not the “tawdry rule
of kings”. He tells them they will encounter resistance and hostility but
must push through. Some of the most stirring lines are: “Take up the
White Man's burden-- / Have done with childish days-- / The lightly
proffered laurel, / The easy, ungrudged praise”. Those who worked in
the colonies must grow up quickly and understand that they will work
hard and perhaps not earn the frequent and unfettered praise they
might have expected.
Despite its more nuanced message, the phrase “the white man’s
burden” became a euphemism for imperialism. Criticism of the poem
has endured. Parodies were written early; “The Brown Man’s Burden”
by Henry Lambuchere and H.T. Johnson’s “The Black Man’s Burden” are
two such examples, both written in 1899. The German-American
political theorists/philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote in her famous
discussion of imperialism in The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951) that
“the fact that the ‘White Man’s burden is either hypocrisy or racism has
not prevented a few of the best Englishmen from shouldering the
burden in earnest and making themselves the tragic and quixotic fools
of imperialism.”