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Rudyard Kiping\u2019s poem, \u201cThe Gods of the Copybook Headings,\u201d is a powerful and poignant challenge for our cultural situation today. Kipling wrote the poem in 1919 in response to the cultural despair after World War I when so many began rejecting the moral and religious truths which had undergirded European civilization. We need to hear this poem again in our setting.<\/p>\n
Since the poem is almost a hundred years old, we may need some background to properly understand it. Copybooks were books used in schools for handwriting. At the top of the page was a common proverb which the student would copy numerous times. Thus, the \u201ccopybook headings\u201d were well known sayings which embodied traditional moral truths. Kipling is saying that people in his day were abandoning these truths in pursuit of materialism and notions of \u201cprogress.\u201d However, ignoring truth does not make it go away, and the violation of the laws of nature![\"Turn-of-the-century](\"http:\/\/doctorspiller.com\/images\/MartyOffice\/copybook.jpg\")
and basic realities
\nwill lead to destruction.<\/p>\n
This is not an explicitly Christian poem, and, of course, morals alone are not sufficient. However, we must assess the poem for what it aims to do. It is useful and important to be reminded that the cultural rejection of morality (sexual purity, honesty, hard work, etc.) will lead to cultural destruction. The fact that the gospel produces such character is one of the many ways it contributes to human flourishing.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n<\/h1>\n
The Gods of the Copybook Headings\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
\nI make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
\nPeering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
\nAnd the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.<\/p>\nWe were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
\nThat Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
\nBut we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
\nSo we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.<\/p>\nWe moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
\nBeing neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
\nBut they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
\nThat a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.<\/p>\nWith the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
\nThey denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
\nThey denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
\nSo we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.<\/p>\nWhen the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
\nThey swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
\nBut when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
\nAnd the Gods of the Copybook Headings said:\u00a0“Stick to the Devil you know.”<\/em><\/p>\nOn the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
\n(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
\nTill our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
\nAnd the Gods of the Copybook Headings said:\u00a0“The Wages of Sin is Death.”<\/em><\/p>\nIn the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
\nBy robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
\nBut, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
\nAnd the Gods of the Copybook Headings said:\u00a0“If you don’t work you die.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nThen the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
\nAnd the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
\nThat All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
\nAnd the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.<\/p>\nAs it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
\nThere are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
\nThat the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
\nAnd the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;<\/p>\nAnd that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
\nWhen all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
\nAs surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
\nThe Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rudyard Kipling<\/p><\/blockquote>\n