Essay Questions

What is the stimulus behind this poem?

This is an example of a work of literature being written specifically as a reply to another work of literature written by a different writer. In this case, the other writer happens to be one of the most famous names in British literature: Rudyard Kipling, creator of Mowgli and the rest of the cast of characters in The Jungle Book. It is Kipling’s controversial poem “The White Man’s Burden” which this poem is written to respond to, however. That poem is notorious for defending British imperialism, colonization and exploitation, and most of all for a racism that leaves no question about whether its author qualifies to be identified as a white supremacist.

What is the dominant—almost the only—literary technique which the poet to attack the indefensible propaganda of Kipling’s surprisingly popular poem?

While relying on a number of individual literary devices to fuel the construction of his verse, each of these are all working in concert together to support just one overarching and unifying technique: irony. For instance, the title of this work differs from Kipling’s original by just one single world, swapping “white” for “black” with the ironic intimation being that the way Kipling sees the world the difference between whites and blacks should much bigger and require more effort. There is also irony in that the Kipling sees the burden of whites “civilizing” blacks a charitable function while the speaker sees that charitable function as merely increasing the load of the weight he himself must burden. Another device used throughout is the speaker’s sarcastic tone when speaking about the “honor” of imperialistic invasion that white countries call war and how the effort to civilize Native Americans has successfully “sealed the Red Man’s problem.”

What ultimately becomes the message which the speaker wishes to deliver to those who have or would adopt white supremacist philosophy which Kipling espouses in his poem?

With its final stanza, the poem makes a significant tonal shift to wind up in a place where it has not yet been. Taking off from the prophetic final line of the previous stanza, the speaker suddenly adopts the persona of a full-blown apocalyptic visionary by introducing biblical imagery subtly recalling the intense foretelling of doom from the Book of Revelation. It is, in a sense, a Stanza of Revelation, calling for imagery of ultimate defeat for racists, imperialists, supremacists and even, in the face of God’s wrath, the military might which has been so vital to the occupation of imperialist colonization. By the time the poem comes to its end, the speaker’s message is clear and unambiguous: judgment day is unavoidable for Kipling’s cultists and God will not be burdened in the slightest by their powerful show of force that has worked here on earth.