The White Man's Burden

"The White Man's Burden" is a poem by the English poet Rudyard Kipling.
It was originally published in the popular magazine McClure's in 1899, with the subtitle The United States and the Philippine Islands. The poem was originally written for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, but exchanged for "Recessional"; Kipling changed the text of "Burden" to reflect the subject of American colonization of the Philippines, recently won from Spain in the Spanish-American War. The poem consists of seven stanzas, following a regular rhyme scheme. At face value it appears to be a rhetorical command to white men to colonize and rule other nations for the benefit of those people (both the people and the duty may be seen as representing the "burden" of the title).
== The Poem ==
The text of the poem.