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 judgment of your peers!

1.What is a “burden”?
2. Why does Kipling use this word in his poem? Is colonization something that Europeans have to do?
3. When Kipling says “go bind your sons to exile” what does he mean?
4. Kipling refers to the native populations as “half devil and half child.” This was a common belief among
many of the European settlers/colonizers. If the Europeans viewed the native populations in this manner,
what did they think they were “doing” that was “helping” them?
5. Kipling says that the Europeans go
“To seek another’s profit,
And work another’s gain”
If the “another” that he talks about are the native populations of colonized countries is this true? Why or
why not?
6. In the second stanza Kipling lists some “positives” that colonization might bring. What are they?
7. In the second stanza, Kipling talks about how Europeans feel it is unfair that the native populations hate
them for colonizing. Based on what we know, explain the basis of the native populations’ anger.
8. Why does Kipling refer to the pre-colonization days as “childish.” Why would European countries feel
they need to have colonies in the late 1800’s?
9. The very last sentence of the poem talks about the colonizer being judged “by your peers.” If this poem
was written about Great Britain, who would be their “peers.” What might they be accused of doing by
other European countries?
10. We know Kipling is being sarcastic in this poem. We also know that he does not entirely support the
justifications that Europeans use when colonizing other countries. However, the “white man’s burden”
was a real idea that existed in the 1800’s, many Europeans truly believed in it. Having read Kipling’s
poem, how would you define what the “white man’s burden” was?