[stylist] Your Take

[Jacobson, Shawn D]

Thanks for the explanation.  I think the moral of the poem is that reality bites and all the smooth talk of the marketers of ideology will not change that.  Socialism, passivism and free love morality are all incompatible with reality and will thus fail, but they are attractive and will all be tried again and again and again.  Dark but realistic.

Once again thanks.

Shawn

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Bridgit Pollpeter
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2011 5:01 PM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
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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