"The White Man's Burden", Kipling

     This poem is a white man that is telling his "fellow white people" to take up the white man's burden. As he talks about what the white people should do, he seems like he is saying that they need to make the other people of the world live better. The second to last stanza says "Ye dare not stoop to less-- Nor call too loud on Freedom" It talks about making th eother people free and not stooping to less, or in other words, do not live like the other nations and peoples live.
     This poem seems to be about  the belief of imperialism. It talks to the white men, telling them to go out into the world and conquer other peoples and "train" them in the white man's ways. The end of the first stanza is "Your new-caught. sullen peoples. Half-devil and half-child." This shows that the white men had conquered the other people, and were looking at them as savages (half-devil). This poem is cruel to the people outside America, as well as "non-whites" inside America. One thing that is not clear, is if this poem is satyrical or not. So,
    is this poem satyrical or serious?