The White Man's Burden

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1899

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

The poem is written in iambic trimeter. An iambic poetic foot consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. A trimeter is a line that comprises three feet.

The poem’s rhyme scheme is a b c b d e f e; that is, in each stanza, line 2 rhymes with line 4, and line 6 rhymes with line 8. The other four lines are unrhymed and have an extra syllable at the end of the line. This extra unstressed syllable is known as a feminine ending. The other line endings, with stressed syllables, are known as masculine endings. The rhymes are perfect rhymes because both consonant and vowel sounds rhyme (“breed” and “need,” for example, in Lines 2 and 4).

Repetition

The first line of the poem is repeated in the first lines of all the subsequent stanzas, which emphasizes the poem’s main theme. This device is like a refrain, which is often used in songs as well as poetry, although a refrain is usually placed at the end of a verse. The repetition is most effective, as are other literary devices of the poem, when the poem is read aloud.

Personification

Personification is a literary device in which an object, thing, or abstract idea is presented as if it had human attributes. The abstract noun “famine,” as in “fill full the mouth of Famine” (Line 19), is presented as a living thing that possesses a mouth. The poet chose this in preference to a literal expression of the same idea, such as “fill the mouths of the starving.”

Alliteration

Alliteration is the repetition of nearby consonant sounds. Examples include the following: “best ye breed” (Line 2), “heavy harness” (Line 5), “fluttered folk” (Line 6), “speech and simple” (Line 13), “Fill full the mouth of Famine (Line 19), “sickness cease” (Line 20; the sounds are the same even though the consonant is different), “heathen” and “hope” (Lines 23-24), “tawdry” and “toil” (Lines 26-27) as well as “tale” in the next line (Line 28), “serf and sweeper” (Line 27), “make them” and “mark them” (Lines 31-32), “reap” and “reward” (Line 34), “blame” and “better” (Line 35), “brought” and “bondage” (Line 39), “call,” “cloak,” and “cry” (Lines 43-45), “silent, sullen” (Line 47) and “Shall” (Line 48), “lightly proffered laurel” (Line 51), “Comes” and “Cold-edged” (Lines 53 and 55; these words are separated by a line but are both in a prominent position as the first word in the line, so the alliteration is heard).

The alliteration is usually for pleasing poetic effect, especially when read out loud, which many of the early readers of the poem would likely have done. Sometimes also, as with “tawdry” and “toil,” the alliteration emphasizes a contrast in meaning.