White Man's Burden.net

Take up "the white man's burden";

The white man is the strong

And glorious Anglo-Saxon

Who feels not others' wrong.

All men are black whose customs

He does not understand.

Take up the white man's burden--

The gold-fields of the Rand!

Take up "the white man's burden,"

The dwellings of the brown

Perchance will yield a profit

When we have swept them down

By treason or by torture,

Mean stealth or open war.

Take up the white man's burden--

Manila and Samar!

Take up "the white man's burden";

When he is wanting land,

The folk who would refuse him

Shall feel his heavy hand;

The folk who bargain with him

Are riding for a fall.

Take up the white man's burden--

The Panama Canal!

--December 12, 1903.