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[http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poems_copybook.htm The Gods of the Copybook Headings] 

 


== The Gods of the Copybook Headings ==

[http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/kip_fra.htm RUDYARD KIPLING]


AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,<Br>
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.<Br>
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,<Br>
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<Br>
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:<Br>
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,<Br>
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,<Br>
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,<Br>
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come<Br>
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,<Br>
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;<Br>
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;<Br>
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.<Br>
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.<Br>
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,<Br>
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<Br>
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)<Br>
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,<Br>
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death." 

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all, <Br>
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul; <Br>
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,<Br> 
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<Br>
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true<Br>
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four<Br>
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<Br>
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began. <Br>
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire, <Br>
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<Br>
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,<Br> 
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn, <Br>
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

[[Category:People]]