Join the Neopoet online poetry workshop and community to improve as a writer, meet fellow poets, and showcase your work. Sign up, submit your poetry, and get started.
Stripping Kipling
a gentleman from the west
considering his culture the best
chronicling what he felt certain
penning The White Man’s Burden
policies provoking native unrest
Style / type:
Structured: Western
Review Request (Intensity):
I want the raw truth, feel free to knock me on my back
Last few words:
This is in the Limerick format and the title refers to showing the beliefs of Rudyard Kipling, a staunch imperialist, who defended colonialism as a necessary burden that the advanced colonial empires had to bear in order to enlighten and civilize the downtrodden natives. He wrote a poem "The White Man's Burden: The United States and the Philippine Islands" is a 1899 poem by Rudyard Kipling about the Philippine–American War (1899–1902), which invites the U.S. to assume colonial control of that country. The poem was published in The New York Sun on 10 February 1899 (Herman, Shadowing the White Man's Burden (2010), p. 45)
Editing stage:
(c) Neopoet.com. No copyright is claimed by Neopoet to original member content.
Comments
swamp-witch
Mon, 2017-12-04 19:32
Rhyku,
Thank you so much for the information on Kipling. I am ashamed that I never knew this terrible side of him. Most people only know the good side, his works, like The Jungle Book and "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi". I guess that suits imperialism and colonialism though; by supporting authors and making them features of canon, it was easier to spread hate and power imbalances because of their influence.
Love to see you branching out in form! I am not good with limericks or other forms that use meter, but our member, Jess, whose username is Weirdelf, loves them and has a real knack for them. I do know, though, that if you want to stick to the form strictly, some of your lines have too many or too few syllables/feet. I believe lines 1, 2, and 5 need nine syllables (line 1 only has 7, line 5 has 10) and lines 3 and 4 should be 6 syllables each (line 3 has 8 or 9, depending on if you draw out "chronicling" as much as I do as a southerner or not, and line 4 has 7). Of course, you don't have to follow the form that closely, but I wanted to note it just in case.
I also appreciate that you used this typically humorous form to talk about a difficult topic. Brave!
Take care,
Kelsey
Critique, don't comment.
Community guidelines: https://www.neopoet.com/community-guidelines
To see our learning resources, click the "Curated Resources" link under the Resources tab in the top menu bar.
OriginalRhyku
Tue, 2017-12-05 03:43
Kelsey
Thanks for your input. I think Kipling was a man of his time and just because his attitude towards natives was ignorant by today's standards, that does not take away from his poetic prowess. I like his "If" very much and have taken the liberty of editing his If to make it more inclusive of every person - please see my poem entitled "Rudyard Kipling's If - Updated".
author commentswamp-witch
Tue, 2017-12-05 14:37
I do still love his writing,
But it always hurts when you find out that person you admired was "a product of their time" instead of someone who realized what was wrong with that behavior, especially as writers, since we do have so many people of the past to look up to.
Kelsey
Critique, don't comment.
Community guidelines: https://www.neopoet.com/community-guidelines
To see our learning resources, click the "Curated Resources" link under the Resources tab in the top menu bar.