11. Poetry Close Reading Chart #1

Poem #1 and Author

Analysis of Close Reading

Rudyard Kipling’s 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 naught. 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!­

The first line of Kipling’s poem insinuates that it is the White man’s duty to help his lesser brothers. This plays into a lot of the societal beliefs and pseudo-sciences of the late 1800s that stated that Whites were superior to other races. There is irony in the idea that the white “master” must “serve [his] captives’ need” (Kipling 4). Line 7: Kipling says that the newly conquered people are “sullen” when they should be grateful for the chance the White men have given them. Line 8: By calling the natives, half devil, Kipling affirms that he thinks lowly of them. Line 11: Behind the Europeans’ magnanimous gesture of brotherhood to the so called uncivilized peoples, there is an ulterior and sinister motive. Line 15-16: The goal of the Europeans in Africa and Asia is not to help the native peoples. Nay, it is rather to make themselves rich men and women. Line 18: The Europeans have a duty to bring civilization to the non-whites. And, ironically, they do this by using war (conquest) to bring peace and order. Line 19-20: Kipling claims that the natives need the Whites to teach them how to grow crops and ward of sickness, although, for centuries, they have taken care of themselves. Line 27-28: Kipling states that the Europeans enter lands which no man has entered before and that to civilize them, it will take bloodshed. Lines 38-39: Kipling says it’s hypocritical to use freedom as a façade for imperialistic ambitions because in reality, you are taking away the native’s freedoms. Lines 46-47: Kipling wrote this poem in order to encourage the USA to pursue imperialistic goals in the Philippines. He says that to take up the torch of Imperialism is to come of age as a country and be worthy of your peers.