Much like Kipling himself, the speaker of “The White Man’s Burden” is an educated British person who embodies the conservative values traditionally associated with the Victorians. On the level of form, the speaker’s conservatism appears in the poem’s conventional use of meter and rhyme. Instead of experimenting with poetic form, the speaker’s verse introduces small rhetorical flourishes to elevate the argument without sacrificing the overall clarity of the language. On the level of content, the speaker’s conservative values are apparent in their political outlook. Consider the way they frame imperialism as a “burden” that “the White Man” takes on as a selfless act in the service of others. The speaker genuinely believes that imperialism is an honorable project in which the best European men sacrifice their own well-being to liberate the people of non-European nations. Such a belief clearly reflects the British Victorian view of imperialism as a civilizing mission. It also reflects the racist paternalism that was built into conservative Victorian ideology, which saw “the White Man” as intrinsically superior to those “silent sullen peoples” (line 47) they purported to lift up.

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