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—
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!
–Rudyard Kipling
"The White Man's Burden"
1899
According to Kipling, what is the white man’s burden?
White men have the duty to serve others around the world.
White men must send their best sons to work as household servants.
White men must wait until they have worked hard enough to improve other regions.
White men are devilish and childish, and these qualities harm society.