[stylist] Your Take

[Judith Bron]

Thanks for telling us about the origins of the copybook Bridget.  Here's 
another take I came up with later on.
 Buried, or not so buried in the Kippling piece, here was my take and 
confusion.  He seems to be addressing a system where all a man needs to 
survive
is his existance and he'll never have to pay for his sins again.  Is this 
socialism?  All a person in a socialist society has to do to exist is to be 
born
breathing.  If there is no belief in a higher power there are no sins. 
However, the written word will survive because no matter the politics, 
religion
or lack there are still ideas and concepts out there that mankind, by virtue 
of his birth crave .  No matter what kind of society you throw a human being
into knowledge is the one craving that cannot be obliterated.  Man needs to 
be fed by knowledge the same way he has to be sustained with food.  Judith

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bridgit Pollpeter" <bpollpeter at hotmail.com>
To: <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2011 5:01 PM
Subject: [stylist] Your Take


> Copybook heading was a primer of sorts in England.  Children would work
> on their penmenship by copying lines (usually some wise saying or poem)
> to practice their writing skills.  Oh where have those days gone?
> *smirk*
>
> The poem was written after WW 1, and I think Kipling is contrasting this
> civil idea of perfect penmenship (a world where such frivolous matters
> are important) with the human invention of war.  No matter how "civil"
> we believe our society is, there will always be a dark side to life.
>
> Bridgit
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2011 09:34:17 -0500
> From: "Joe Orozco" <jsorozco at gmail.com>
> To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: [stylist] Your Take?
> Message-ID: <E79F0930DB004D538D70683EF9AB23C3 at Rufus>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> I'm not much of a poetry fan, and when I do read it, it has to rhyme
> because I'm just basic like that.  Anyway, give this Kipling poem a
> read, and tell me your interpretation of it?--Joe
>
> The Gods of the Copybook Headings
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----
> ----
>
>
>
>
> AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
> I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place. Peering
> through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall, And the Gods of
> the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.
>
> We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
> That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn: But we
> found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind, So we left
> them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.
>
> We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace, Being
> neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place, But they
> always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come That a
> tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in
> Rome.
>
> With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of
> touch, They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even
> Dutch; They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had
> Wings; So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these
> beautiful things.
>
> When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
> They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes
> would cease. But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to
> our foe, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil
> you know."
>
> On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life (Which
> started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife) Till our
> women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith, And the
> Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."
>
> In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
> By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
> But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could
> buy,
> And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."
>
>
> Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards
> withdrew And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe
> it was true That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make
> Four And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once
> more.
>
> As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
> There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
> That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
> And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
>
> And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins When
> all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
> As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
> The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----
>
>
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