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.

In the poem’s third stanza (lines 17–24), the speaker describes the central tension at the heart of any imperial project. That is, the empire uses force to subjugate and control a foreign population, but it claims to do so in order to improve their living conditions. The speaker registers this tension through the contradictory phrase, “savage wars of peace.” It is through such wars, the speaker suggests, that “the White Man” can end hunger and disease abroad. Yet despite all “the White Man” does for non-Western nations, the speaker insists that the natural inferiority of the citizens of those nations will threaten the empire’s good works. Thus, even if the imperial project succeeds in ending hunger and disease, “the White Man” must stay vigilant lest “Sloth and heathen Folly / Bring all your hopes to nought.” Here, the speaker invokes the personified figures of Sloth and Folly as a way to justify imperial rule. If non-Western peoples are really as lazy and incompetent as the speaker claims, then “the savage wars of peace” must be accepted as legitimate. The ends, in the speaker’s view, justify the means.

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!) toward the light— 
“Why brought ye us from bondage, 
    “Our loved Egyptian night?”

The fifth stanza (lines 33–40) contains some of the most controversial lines in the entire poem. The speaker begins by describing how “the White Man” will only get resentment in exchange for his efforts. That is, the “old reward” he will reap will consist solely of “blame” and “hate.” If this is the case, the speaker claims, it’s because the people “the White Man” attempts to help are fundamentally backward. Whereas the Western imperial nations want to usher these people “toward the light,” they would apparently prefer to remain in darkness. According to the speaker, this preference for darkness indicates an unenlightened desire to remain bound to the degrading conditions of poverty. The speaker indicates as much when they ventriloquize “the cry of hosts,” who would ask, “Why brought ye us from bondage, / Our beloved Egyptian night?” The phrase “Egyptian night” is a biblical reference to the Hebrew people, who were held as slaves in Egypt. The Egyptian night is therefore a powerful—and profoundly troubling—symbol. The speaker is essentially arguing that colonized people subscribe to what we might call a “slave mentality.”

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.

These lines (49–56) makes up the poem’s seventh and final stanza. Throughout the first six stanzas, the speaker has described several reasons why “the White Man’s burden” is a forbidding challenge to take up. But by this point in the poem, it’s clear to the reader that however challenging and thankless the task, the speaker believes it to be a moral imperative. Thus, by taking up the burden of imperialism, “the White Man” not only helps those in need but also confirms his own innate honor and superiority. In this concluding stanza, the speaker takes this latter point further. Not only does adopting the burden confer honor on “the White Man,” but it also positively confirms his masculine status. Because the burden of imperialism requires hard work and immense self-sacrifice, taking it up is tantamount to “hav[ing] done with childish days.” That is, it requires the imperialist to leave his youth behind and definitively enter “manhood.” This new stage of life may leave him “cold-edged with dear-bought wisdom.” However, such wisdom is the ultimate marker of maturity, and something that enables “the White Man” to disregard the complaints of his so-called inferiors and instead focus on “the judgement of [his] peers.”

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