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Kipling's narrative voice contrasts the purported eternal wisdom of these commonplace texts with the fashionable and (in
Kipling's view) naïve modern ideas of "the Market-Place", making oblique reference, by way of puns or poetic references to older
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In the poem, Kipling's narrator counterposes the "Gods" of the title, who embody eternal truths, against "the Gods of the Market-Place", who represent an optimistic self-deception into which it supposes society has fallen in the early 20th century.
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as one of several "ferocious post-war eruptions" of
Kipling's souring sentiment concerning the state of Anglo-European society. It was first published in the
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According to Slade, while the poem's verbosity is "far removed from Horace's elegant succinctness", it does "make the same point with some force".
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A page from a 19th-century copybook, in which the printed headings have been copied. The homily is paraphrased from the 17th-century sermon
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Don't Count on It!: Reflections on
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of London on 26 October 1919. In
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In a footnote to a philosophical essay, Francis Slade compared
Kipling's theme to
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That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.
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Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew,
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So we left them to teach the
Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.
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So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.
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And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
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But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
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But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
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With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch.
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And the Gods of the
Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.
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And the Gods of the
Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."
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When the
Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
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I.10 ("The
Advantages of Country Life"), in which the Roman poet says:
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Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
416:(Definitive ed.). Garden City, NY: Doubleday. pp. 801–803.
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Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
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We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
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The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
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When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
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And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
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But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
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And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
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And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.
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There are only four things certain since Social Progress began:—
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But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
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That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
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Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
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The Gods of the Copybook Headings by Rudyard Kipling, 1865–1936
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In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
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I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market-Place.
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We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
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As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
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Drive Nature off with a pitchfork, she’ll still press back,
439:
The Long Recessional: The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling
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The Long Recessional: The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling
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described the poem as "beautifully captur the thinking of
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As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man—
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As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,
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And secretly burst in triumph through your sad disdain.
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The "copybook headings" to which the title refers were
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Gods of the Copybook Headings hosted at kipling.org.uk
479:"Horace (65 BC–8 BC) – The Epistles: Book I Epistle X"
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On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the
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And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to
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From Sea to Sea and Other Sketches, Letters of Travel
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909:Rudyard Kipling's Verse: Definitive Edition
503:Slade, Francis (2000). Ramos, Alice (ed.).
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720:Wee Willie Winkie and Other Child Stories
289:included the poem in his 1941 collection
232:and Liberal efforts at disarmament ("the
376:War Stories and Poems – Rudyard Kipling
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633:The Naulahka: A Story of West and East
704:The Phantom 'Rickshaw and Other Tales
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1472:Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer
1503:Rudyard Kipling: A Remembrance Tale
1244:The Conversion of Aurelian McGoggin
283:": both ideas of the market place.
1202:The Arrest of Lieutenant Golightly
575:(includes a reading in MP3 format)
466:The Gods of the Copybook Headings.
340:The Gods of the Copybook Headings.
45:, characterized by biographer Sir
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1384:The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo
1041:The Gods of the Copybook Headings
509:. American Maritain Association.
123:; they denied she was even Dutch.
39:The Gods of the Copybook Headings
1529:Caroline Starr Balestier Kipling
943:The Ballad of the 'Clampherdown'
373:Rutherford, Andrew, ed. (1999).
202:and the Sow returns to her Mire,
1321:Learoyd, Mulvaney and Ortheris
219:Modern critical interpretation
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1265:The Drums of the Fore and Aft
1083:The Last of the Light Brigade
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187:All is not Gold that Glitters
200:the Dog returns to his Vomit
189:, and Two and Two make Four—
1377:The Ship that Found Herself
950:The Ballad of East and West
917:A Choice of Kipling's Verse
483:www.poetryintranslation.com
325:Farrar, Straus & Giroux
292:A Choice of Kipling's Verse
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1258:The Devil and the Deep Sea
1230:The Butterfly that Stamped
672:Plain Tales from the Hills
506:Beauty, Art, and the Polis
1633:Poetry by Rudyard Kipling
1391:The Taking of Lungtungpen
1335:The Man Who Would Be King
1020:The Female of the Species
543:. John Wiley & Sons.
163:The Wages of Sin is Death
1440:Yoked with an Unbeliever
1223:The Broken-Link Handicap
936:The Absent-Minded Beggar
885:The Fringes of the Fleet
688:The Story of the Gadsbys
353:"Harper's Magazine 1920"
1489:Aerial Board of Control
1419:Toomai of the Elephants
1307:In the House of Suddhoo
537:Bogle, John C. (2010).
435:Gilmour, David (2002).
413:Rudyard Kipling's Verse
226:geological time periods
16:Poem by Rudyard Kipling
1467:Indian Railway Library
1370:The Rescue of Pluffles
1177:The White Man's Burden
920:(by T. S. Eliot, 1941)
814:All the Mowgli Stories
790:The Second Jungle Book
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1577:Georgiana Burne-Jones
1553:John Lockwood Kipling
1216:Bread upon the Waters
1076:The King's Pilgrimage
798:Letting in the Jungle
625:The Light That Failed
443:. Macmillan. p.
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119:They denied that the
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1426:Watches of the Night
1405:The Three Musketeers
1398:Three and – an Extra
1209:Baa Baa, Black Sheep
1069:In the Neolithic Age
736:Barrack-Room Ballads
1349:Miss Youghal's Sais
901:Limits and Renewals
888:(1915, non-fiction)
877:Rewards and Fairies
869:Puck of Pook's Hill
645:Captains Courageous
242:Feminian Sandstones
129:; they denied that
1593:Philip Burne-Jones
1585:Edward Burne-Jones
1506:(2006 documentary)
1293:His Chance in Life
1142:The Sons of Martha
1090:The Lowestoft Boat
1055:Hymn Before Action
893:Debits and Credits
696:In Black and White
146:the Devil you know
127:Wishes were Horses
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27:Against Detraction
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760:Mowgli's Brothers
712:Under the Deodars
638:Wolcott Balestier
253:Horace's Epistles
125:They denied that
61:in January 1920.
58:Harper's Magazine
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1114:McAndrew's Hymn
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1237:Consequences
1156:The Sweepers
1106:Mary Gloster
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978:Big Steamers
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1498:(1997 play)
1495:My Boy Jack
1412:Thrown Away
1128:Recessional
1121:My Boy Jack
1027:Fuzzy-Wuzzy
1013:A Death-Bed
822: 1895
664:Collections
522:11 December
488:18 December
460:11 December
392:11 December
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287:T. S. Eliot
1638:1919 poems
1627:Categories
1540:(daughter)
1279:False Dawn
1272:Fairy-Kist
1149:Submarines
327:. p.
299:References
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240:("the ...
1477:Iron Ring
1314:Kidnapped
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1596:(cousin)
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410:(1940).
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238:feminism
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70:proverbs
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153:Fuller
74:maxims
1548:(son)
1163:Tommy
985:Boots
928:Poems
228:, to
198:That
185:That
1195:.007
1104:The
545:ISBN
524:2012
511:ISBN
490:2019
462:2012
449:ISBN
418:OCLC
394:2012
381:ISBN
360:2020
336:2019
275:and
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