Posted on 02/05/2005 5:37:04 PM PST by NMC EXP
In February 1899, British novelist and poet Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem entitled “The White Man’s Burden: The United States and The Philippine Islands.” In this poem, Kipling urged the U.S. to take up the “burden” of empire, as had Britain and other European nations. Published in the February, 1899 issue of McClure’s Magazine, the poem coincided with the beginning of the Philippine-American War and U.S. Senate ratification of the treaty that placed Puerto Rico, Guam, Cuba, and the Philippines under American control.
Theodore Roosevelt, soon to become vice-president and then president, copied the poem and sent it to his friend, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, commenting that it was “rather poor poetry, but good sense from the expansion point of view.” Not everyone was as favorably impressed as Roosevelt. The racialized notion of the “White Man’s burden” became a euphemism for imperialism, and many anti-imperialists couched their opposition in reaction to the phrase.
Take up the White Man’s burden—
Send forth the best ye breed—
Go send 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!
Source: Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden: The United States & The Philippine Islands, 1899.” Rudyard Kipling’s Verse: Definitive Edition (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1929).
Agreed.
I like Kipling ....I'm sure anyone who knows me here is absolutely shocked by that admission.
He knew his tribe.
W/O looking ahead, I'm going to bet the race hustlas are downthread preening....hope I'm wrong.
You sound like my mother!
well, actually, I'd put the Belgians at the bottom looking at what they did to the Congo. the French are pretty close though! What with Indo-China (Vietnam, Cambodia, etc), Algeria, West Africa etc. etc.
Definately agree on that...I wonder what King Leopold's hell is like? Hmmm....
By the way
I LOVE your mother.
And if that's you... pardon me, but... Just DAMN
LOL that is me.
America is great because it has most every nation's best and brightest talent thanks to all the opportunity. If a nation's best leaves, not much is left behind but I'm just speculating.
Anyone especially interested in this subject might check out Niall Ferguson's `Empire'. (Conservative Book Club, on sale) I was surprised to learn that one of Ghandi's favorite poems was Kipling's 'If'.
Did you know that the Dutch sailed up the Thames at one point on time, causing the English to merge economically with them?
Not to defend them, but a couple outstanding Indian practices the British prohibited was burning widows on pyres and leaving female infants exposed to die.
And one of the legacies of the empire upon which the sun did not set, as the Viceroys ground their heels into the faces of our poor little brown brothers sitting in darkness: representative democracies.
Right, then.
Anyone especially interested in this subject might check out Niall Ferguson's `Empire'. (Conservative Book Club, on sale) I was surprised to learn that one of Ghandi's favorite poems was Kipling's 'If'.
Did you know that the Dutch sailed up the Thames at one point on time, causing the English to merge economically with them?
Not to defend them, but a couple outstanding Indian practices the British prohibited was burning widows on pyres and leaving female infants exposed to die.
And one of the legacies of the empire upon which the sun did not set, as the Viceroys ground their heels into the faces of our poor little brown brothers sitting in darkness: representative democracies.
Right, then.
I have to forgive you, because I've done it myself more than once.:)
"Oh, the monkeys have no tails in Zamboanga, the monkeys have no tails in Zamboanga. The monkeys have no tails, they were bitten off by whales. Oh the monkeys have no tails in Zamboanga."
It is one of the "bracket poems" to "Brother Square-Toes" in Rewards and Fairies, one of Kipling's two 'children's books' about English history that are really not for children at all (he said as much in a letter to IIRC Cecil Rhodes.)
Kipling often "bracketed" his short stories with two poems that would introduce and sum up the short story.
If you read "Brother Square-Toes" you will see that it is about George Washington making hard decisions on behalf of the fledgling American government . . . after a dreadful confrontation with nay-sayers in his own cabinet, he tells Cornplanter, "My brothers know it is not easy to be a Chief."
On reflection, maybe even closer to President Bush than we thought. Somebody ought to send him the story to go with the poem (I'm sure people have sent him the poem alone!)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.