Rudyard Kipling's poem. Repugnantly racist or did he have a deeper message. This poem seems at odds to his love of the Far East. The people and culture shaped his life in an extraordinary way.
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 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 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 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 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!
Originally posted by Hand of Hecatei think he is sayin that resting your feet on their children cures rheumatism.
Rudyard Kipling's poem. Repugnantly racist or did he have a deeper message. This poem seems at odds to his love of the Far East. The people and culture shaped his life in an extraordinary way.
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,
O ...[text shortened]... thankless years
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!
Originally posted by Hand of HecateWhat does the first stanza tell us about '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.
Originally posted by SeitseOn the contrary, I think it is a fairly nuanced piece by an arch-imperialist reflecting attitudes that were once widely prevalent. For that reason it has clear historical interest.
As simplistic and unidimensional as "If", a.k.a. the official white men's guide to an emotionally handicapped living.
I could easily imagine some Roman poet writing a poem about 'the Roman's burden'.
Originally posted by Bosse de NageThere are far better crafted pieces of arch-imperialist attitudes than Kipling.
On the contrary, I think it is a fairly nuanced piece by an arch-imperialist reflecting attitudes that were once widely prevalent. For that reason it has clear historical interest.
I could easily imagine some Roman poet writing a poem about 'the Roman's burden'.
E.g. Truman's Point Four.
Originally posted by SeitseFifty years later, and ignoring the difference in genres, maybe. I don't find Kipling's poem to be poorly crafted at all -- in diction and structure, in fact, it suits the target readership very well. And Kipling was immensely popular -- If was recently voted the most popular poem in English, believe it or not.
There are far better crafted pieces of arch-imperialist attitudes than Kipling.
E.g. Truman's Point Four.
I'm interested in how attitudes like Kipling's, now unthinkable, have changed -- or have they? Perhaps the peculiar combination of martyrdom, superiority, destiny and Other-objectification lives on in a different form.
Originally posted by Bosse de NageI believe it.
And Kipling was immensely popular -- If was recently voted the most popular poem in English, believe it or not.
Entire generations of foolishly stoic men have crafted their Englishness around it.
We're arguing different things, it seems. I concur with you in its cultural and historical relevance. I just think it's cheap in content... like the 7 habits of the excellent excellences and stuff like that.
If I need a manual for life, I rather use the Bible over If, eyes closed. It's far more complex and cryptic, after all.
Originally posted by Hand of HecateIts about Rhodesia,south africa and a thousand other places that the white hand has stolen and taken of its best then thrown it to the wolves.
Rudyard Kipling's poem. Repugnantly racist or did he have a deeper message. This poem seems at odds to his love of the Far East. The people and culture shaped his life in an extraordinary way.
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,
O ...[text shortened]... thankless years
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!
Originally posted by SeitseI think it's hilarious that a barely literate retard like yourself is criticising the works of the most brilliant Rudyard Kipling. LULZ.
I believe it.
Entire generations of foolishly stoic men have crafted their Englishness around it.
We're arguing different things, it seems. I concur with you in its cultural and historical relevance. I just think it's cheap in content... like the 7 habits of the excellent excellences and stuff like that.
If I need a manual for life, I rather use the Bible over If, eyes closed. It's far more complex and cryptic, after all.
Originally posted by Hand of HecatePlacing 'brilliant' and 'Kipling' in the same sentence is definitely the product of a cookie cutter upbringing for plain vanilla suburbanites.
I think it's hilarious that a barely literate retard like yourself is criticising the works of the most brilliant Rudyard Kipling. LULZ.
Wise up. It's not late to develop a taste in you.
Originally posted by SeitseYou lecturing me on anything more socially or intellectually complex than the myriad of techniques that monkeys in the zoo use to throw poop at each other is laughable. Stick to what you know, picking crops, sweating and packing '87 Econoline vans to maximum capacity.
Placing 'brilliant' and 'Kipling' in the same sentence is definitely the product of a cookie cutter upbringing for plain vanilla suburbanites.
Wise up. It's not late to develop a taste in you.
Originally posted by Hand of HecateStick to being John Doe.
You lecturing me on anything more socially or intellectually complex than the myriad of techniques that monkeys in the zoo use to throw poop at each other is laughable. Stick to what you know, picking crops, sweating and packing '87 Econoline vans to maximum capacity.
Got the new issue of "Gun Weekly"? High culture is your thing.