The White Man’s Burden
Take up the White Man’s burden--Send forth the best ye breed--Go bind your sons to exileTo 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 terrorAnd 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 FamineAnd bid the sickness cease;And when your goal is nearestThe end for others sought,Watch Sloth and heathen FollyBring all your hope 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 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 FreedomTo cloak your weariness;By all ye cry or whisper,By all ye leave or do,The silent, sullen peoplesShall weigh your Gods 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 manhoodThrough all the thankless years,Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,The judgment of your peers!
Words in this poem
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- sullen a.
- Lonely; solitary; desolate. Wyclif (Job iii. 14). [OE. solein, solain, lonely, sullen; through Old French fr. (assumed) LL. solanus solitary, fr. L. solus alone. See Sole, a.]
- famine n.
- General scarcity of food; dearth; a want of provisions; destitution. [F. famine, fr. L. fames hunger; cf. Gr. hani loss, lack, ha to leave.]
- tawdry a.
- Bought at the festival of St. Audrey. [Said to be corrupted from Saint Audrey, or Auldrey, meaning Saint Ethelreda, implying therefore, originally, bought at the fair of St. Audrey, where laces and g]
- sweeper n.
- One who, or that which, sweeps, or cleans by sweeping; a sweep; as, a carpet sweeper.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- reap n.
- A bundle of grain; a handful of grain laid down by the reaper as it is cut. Wright. [Cf. AS. rip harvest. See Reap, v.]
- humour n.
- Moisture, especially, the moisture or fluid of animal bodies, as the chyle, lymph, etc.; as, the humors of the eye, etc. [OE. humour, OF. humor, umor, F. humeur, L. humor, umor, moisture, fluid, fr. humere, umere, to be moist. See Humid.]
- thankless a.
- Not acknowledging favors; not expressing thankfulness; unthankful; ungrateful.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The White Man’s Burden is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Five Nations, Volume I, Project Gutenberg ebook #60260; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Rudyard Kipling, The White Man’s Burden, in The Five Nations, Volume I (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #60260, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-five-nations-1/the-white-man-s-burden.html, id L20242.
Form and metre
The White Man’s Burden is 56 lines in 7 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -A-A-B-B burden · breedA · exile · needA · harness · wildB · peoples · childB
- 2 -A-A-B-B burden · abideA · terror · prideA · simple · plainB · profit · gainB
- 3 -A-A-B-B burden · peaceA · famine · ceaseA · nearest · soughtB · folly · noughtB
- 4 -A-A-B-B burden · kingsA · sweeper · thingsA · enter · treadB · living · deadB
- 5 -----A-A burden · reward · better · guard · humour · lightA · bondage · nightA
- 6 -A-A-B-B burden · lessA · freedom · wearinessA · whisper · doB · peoples · youB
- 7 -A-A-B-B burden · daysA · laurel · praiseA · manhood · yearsB · wisdom · peersB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Take up the White Man’s burden-- | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Send forth the best ye breed-- | 6 | ······ |
| Go bind your sons to exile | 7 | ·····/· |
| To serve your captives’ need; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| To wait in heavy harness, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| On fluttered folk and wild-- | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Your new-caught, sullen peoples, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Half-devil and half-child. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Take up the White Man’s burden-- | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| In patience to abide, | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| To veil the threat of terror | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And check the show of pride; | 6 | ······ |
| By open speech and simple, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| An hundred times made plain, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| To seek another’s profit, | 7 | ··˘/˘/˘ |
| And work another’s gain. | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Take up the White Man’s burden-- | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The savage wars of peace-- | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Fill full the mouth of Famine | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And bid the sickness cease; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And when your goal is nearest | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The end for others sought, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Watch Sloth and heathen Folly | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Bring all your hope to nought. | 6 | ······ |
| Take up the White Man’s burden-- | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| No tawdry rule of kings, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| But toil of serf and sweeper-- | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The tale of common things. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The ports ye shall not enter, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The roads ye shall not tread, | 6 | ······ |
| Go make them with your living, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And mark them with your dead. | 6 | ······ |
| Take up the White Man’s burden-- | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And reap his old reward: | 6 | ····˘/ |
| The blame of those ye better, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The hate of those ye guard-- | 6 | ······ |
| The cry of hosts ye humour | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| (Ah, slowly!) toward the light:-- | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| ‘Why brought ye us from bondage, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Our loved Egyptian night?’ | 6 | /·˘/˘· |
| Take up the White Man’s burden-- | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Ye dare not stoop to less-- | 6 | ······ |
| Nor call too loud on Freedom | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| To cloak your weariness; | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| By all ye cry or whisper, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| By all ye leave or do, | 6 | ······ |
| The silent, sullen peoples | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| Shall weigh your Gods and you. | 6 | ······ |
| Take up the White Man’s burden-- | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Have done with childish days-- | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The lightly proffered laurel, | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| The easy, ungrudged praise. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Comes now, to search your manhood | 7 | ·····/· |
| Through all the thankless years, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The judgment of your peers! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
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