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In 1974, President Idi Amin of Uganda sat atop a throne while forcing four white British businessmen to carry him through the streets of Kampala; as the businessmen groaned under the weight of Amin, he joked that this was "the new white man's burden".
A controversial poem that advocates for white imperialism and colonialism as a moral duty. Learn about the poem's themes, symbols, poetic devices, context, and responses from LitCharts.
The White Man’s Burden. 1899. (The United States and the Philippine Islands) 1. 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.
Learn about the poem's context, themes, form, and literary devices. The White Man’s Burden is a controversial poem by Rudyard Kipling that urges white people to civilize other cultures in the 19th century.
- Female
- October 9, 1995
- Poetry Analyst And Editor
May 13, 2011 · A poem that urges the British to take up the responsibility of ruling over their colonies in Asia and Africa. Read the full text, scheme, metre, characters, stanzas, and translation of this controversial poem by the Nobel laureate.
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Learn the meaning and origin of the phrase "white man's burden", coined by Rudyard Kipling in 1899 to justify colonialism. Find out how the phrase was used before and after Kipling's poem, and see examples and synonyms.
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.
