The White Man’s Burden
by
Rudyard Kipling
|
(The United States and the Philippine
Islands)
|
| 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 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 Freedom |
| To cloak 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 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!
|
| Rudyard
Kipling |
Classic Poems |
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[ If ] [ The Way Through the Woods ] [ Danny Deever ] [ Recessional ] [ Tommy ] [ The White Man's Burden ] [ Chant-Pagan ] [ The Deep Sea Cables ] [ The Dykes ] [ Gunga Din ] [ The Gods of the Copybook Headings ] [ Fuzzy-Wuzzy ] [ The Land ] [ The Old Men ] [ My Rival ] |
