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Kipling composed “The White Man’s Burden” in iambic trimeter. This means that each line in the poem contains three iambic feet, where each iamb consists of one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, as in the word “to-day.” This metrical form yields short lines that produce a quick sense of pace, as if to underscore the urgency of the speaker’s call for the reader to “take up the white man’s burden.” It’s also worth noting that Kipling rarely varies the meter, maintaining a consistent rhythm that propels the reader through the poem. As a representative example, consider the poem’s opening quatrain (lines 1–4):

     Take up / the White / Man’s bur- / den— 
         Send forth / the best / ye breed— 
     Go bind / your sons / to ex- / ile
       To serve / your cap- / tives’ need.

Overall, these lines showcase a regular use of iambic rhythm. However, there are two significant divergences from perfect regularity. First, the opening line begins not with an iamb but with a trochee (stressed–unstressed). The trochee reverses the iambic rhythm, and in doing so it places added emphasis on the speaker’s imperative command: Take! Though subtle, this small interruption of regular meter is important, and its rhetorical power arguably grows over the course of the next six stanzas, each of which begins with this same refrain.

The second divergence from perfectly regular iambic trimeter appears at the end of the odd-numbered lines in the poem. In the example quoted above, note how the first and third lines each end not with a full iamb, but rather with a single unstressed syllable. This unstressed syllable is technically “extra,” since each of these lines already contains three complete metrical feet. The effect of this surplus syllable is that it adds a feeling of imbalance to each line pair, creating a moment of suspension. This suspension builds anticipation for the line that follows, the regular iambic rhythm of which restores balance and establishes a sense of completion. Nineteenth-century poets often used this technique of alternating line lengths to avoid the monotony of perfectly regular rhythm. In that sense, Kipling’s meter is unremarkable. However, his use of alternating line lengths does arguably echo the poem’s broader argument. The speaker is calling for “the white man” to sacrifice his own well-being, which will cause an imbalance in his life. However, the imbalance incurred by the white man will be corrected when he, in the speaker’s view, improves the lives of others, thereby establishing an overall sense of balance.

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