Connecticut State Department of Education TeachFest Connecticut: Summer Academy
Text Complexity Analysis Template
Text complexity analysis
Created by:
Lea McCabe
Event/Date:
7/29/14
Text and
Author
“The Brown Man’s Burden” by Henry Labouchere
Where to Access
Text
Accessible online
Text Description
This is a response to Rudyard Kipling’s “The White Man’s Burden,” which was written in 1899 to promote the imperialistic takeover of
the Philippines by the United States. Labouchere wrote “The Brown Man’s Burden” as an opposition to Kipling’s pro-imperialism stance.
This poem focuses on the negative impact of imperialism on the native people.
Quantitative
Lexile and Grade Level
Poem Lexile: n/a Grade 9/10 reading level
Text
Length
326 words
Qualitative
Meaning/Central Ideas
Text Structure/Organization
The big idea of this poem is that imperialism had a negative impact on
the native people. He uses sarcasm to convey his meaning so this may
throw off some readers.
The poem consists of 8 stanzas of 8 lines each. Each stanza begins with
the phrase “Pile on the White Man’s Burden,” which constantly reiterates
the central idea of the poem.
Prior Knowledge Demands
Language Features
Comprehension of the text is dependent on having read Kipling’s “The
White Man’s Burden.” It is helpful that students have begun to study
imperialism. However, this knowledge of imperialism is not necessary as
students would be able to discover the impact of imperialism (at least
Labouchere’s interpretation of the impact of imperialism) on native
people of imperialized countries.
Very Complex- Though there are not many words in this poem, the
student will not recognize many of them as they may be considered
“older” English.
Potential Reader/Task Challe nges
The student will also have had to have read Rudyard Kipling’s poem and be familiar with the ideas/motivations of imperialism. Students often
struggle with poetry for some reason. They tend to brush it off because they think it will be easy because it is a poem. However, this poem is highly
complex and student will struggle with both the vocabulary and the tone.
Big Takeaway
Labouchere wrote this poem as a response to imperialistic poet Rudyard Kipling. Throughout the poem, he uses sarcasm to convey the idea that
imperialism had a negative impact on the native people of imperialized countries. Students should take away the idea that there was not one
singular view of the impact of imperialism and that it was often not as beneficial to the native people as Europeans would believe.
