The Gods of the Copybook Headings

I found this absolute gem a year or so ago. It appears to be an excellent metaphor for the cyclical nature of cultural rise and decline. Indeed, the peculiar first person singular and plural in the poem (“I” and “We”) seem best to identify the speaker as symbolic of Society. This is borne out by the second line in the second to last stanza.

As for the identification of the Gods of the Market and the Gods of the Copybook Headings, both are best understood when the word “Gods” is thus defined:

• gods are mighty beings who create, sustain order, and rule over things (governing destiny and imposing laws). In this regard, they can be people, divine spiritual beings, or simply symbolic references to the forces that lie behind, in a causative manner, some phenomenon.
• following that, the Gods of the Market appear to be both the micro and macro level mechanics of the economy, and prominent economists, academics and politicians. Take note that the market need not be as narrowly defined as merely monetary exchange, but the exchange of ideas and on the broadest level, the interactions of people in large groups with each other. So I take the Gods of the Market to be, on a level, the voice of a portion of mankind, those  having lofty ideas about how to order society—as the poem shows their respective failure to do.
• the Gods of the Copybook Headings, then, are to be identified as both the laws of nature that ensure that the proverbial “common wisdom” is always proven true by history, and the outspoken ‘wise men’ who propound these truths and stand against the tide of public opinion and endeavor to teach the wisdom of history to Society.

What is a copybook heading? Remember that Kipling wrote around the turn of the 20^th century. Copybooks were notebooks used in British schools, where sentences were copied by students over and over, both to drill in the knowledge of what they were writing, and to practice their script. On each page at the top or bottom, there would typically be short proverbs printed. I don’t recall if I read that these were what was copied, or if they were just included as a publisher’s design. If they were what was copied, the symbolism gets even stronger, because there is the added implication that Society has had common sense drilled into its head, again and again, only to ignore it in favor of the promises of the Gods of the Market, until finally the adage, “those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it” comes true. Copybook headings imbued wisdom in pithy, easily remembered ways. With that in mind, enjoy one of the most poignant poems I’ve ever read:

Of June

I wrote another poem. After the last one, I realized how much fun it was. I hadn't written a rhyme in years. Apparently, there's a distinction between "poetry" and "verse," the latter of which must rhyme. The poetry that doesn't rhyme often strikes me as very weird, anyway. Verse is the sort of thing that Rudyard Kipling wrote a lot of.

Here's my work, and I'll put an interpretation below. This dovetails nicely with my earlier entry about work.

Of June

June has brought cascading rains that clean the dusty air

Something tells me farmers will delight

My nose rejoices over that the pollen isn't there

It's getting washed away 'bout every night

Soon the star charts will proclaim that summer's finally come

The heat's already trying to break through

The soil enriched, rain fills the ditch. Our task has now begun

to work the yard again, but we are few.

Upkeep is a full-time task when you're the only ones

who, hands and feet, must daily work, and plan

to work some more until you've made a dent in all the tons

of things to do for each and every man

Seeing the fruit of your labor lets you silently rejoice

-- or loudly, if it happens to be your style

With satisfaction, head turned skyward, prayer lifts your voice

to thank God for another day worthwhile

Working is no curse if what you're doing is infused

with worth according to a divine end

The ability to tell apart bad things from good misused

separates the godly men from men

Rain in this life can at times be undeniably cruel

when instead of falling calmly, it monsoons

Because I don't see work and rain as goods instead of tools

I'm thus disposed to make the most of June.

I don't think it needs much explaining, but here's some background:
* The farmers will delight because it's critical for crops to get rain right now. Last year we had a drought.
* Prior to the rains, I was congested and sneezy. Now I'm nearly completely uncongested. Rain does have a cleaning effect on the atmosphere. It takes the dust particles that the droplets form around, and brings them back to the ground during the storms.
* By 'star charts,' I'm referring to the astronomical definition of summer as beginning June 20, which coincides with the solstice being June 21. We've had a few days of hot summer-like weather already in May, but the rains have cooled the temperatures a bit. It seems that this year, we're going to get the hot weather nearly right "on time."
* Working the yard refers to my immediate family taking time out of our week to maintain the house and property, which takes up nearly all the time left over when you're working full-time. I myself am still unemployed, but for me, looking for employment and otherwise working around the house is my full-time task. Our house is shaded by trees, so we get lots of stick litter to clean up.
* The fifth stanza refers to the article "Leisurely Labor" that I wrote about a week ago. Not all bad things are necessarily inherently bad. The realization helps to get more enjoyment out of work, which isn't being done for no purpose. See the image above. The sixth stanza wraps up this thought and asserts that with the proper perspective, I can enjoy the season. Those who are begrudgingly laboring might benefit from a change of perspective.

As a neat coincidence, the title I chose for the poem (which wrote itself) is the same as the title for Adam Young's (Owl City) first album, one he self-released. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_June) I figured that giving it this name would be a nice homage to Adam's music, which is itself an example of how a different perspective can give you much more enjoyment out of the simple, even mundane, things in life.

~ Rak Chazak