RUDYARD KIPLING was definitely proud to be English.

But, if George W. Bush ever has you thinking that it's honorable to be patriotic, just read Kipling's “The White Man's Burden” to see what happens when nationalism reaches an extreme.

This poem is about the European colonization of Africa, India, and other countries in Asia, and it seems to imply that the people inhabiting these places need Western help to survive. Thus, we must fulfill our job as white men and become colonialists so we can give aid to the “uncivilized” Others.

And, though there are alternative interpretations of this poem and a strong-standing school of thought that insists Kipling is being ironic, “The White Man's Burden” is nonetheless controversial.

“THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN”
by Rudyard Kipling

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 make 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 !) towards the light:-
"Why brought ye 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 proffered laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years,
Cold-edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgement of your peers.

See more poems by Kipling here.