The White Man’s Burden. “Take up the White Man’s burden— Send forth the best ye breed— Go, bind your sons to exile To serve your captives’ need; To wait, in heavy harness, On fluttered folk and wild— Your new-caught sullen peoples, Half devil and half child. . . .

give me the main idea

The main idea of "The White Man's Burden" is that it is the responsibility of the white race to take on the burden of civilizing and guiding non-white nations. The poem portrays non-white peoples as primitive and in need of control and guidance from the white colonizers.