Kipling is being whimsical in referring to the Carboniferous epoch. As with several pre-historic periods in the poem, he just means 'a long time ago'. Kipling was well aware that there were no people around in the Carboniferous era, around 360 to 300 million years ago, when the giant ferns that became our coal deposits were growing. There were no people in the Feminian and Cambrian eras either. We came along much later. Kipling is just trying to show that people make the same old mistakes over and over if they expect to find what they want instead of accepting life as it is.
In "The Gods of the Copybook Headings," the Carboniferous epoch is referenced to highlight the idea that civilizations are cyclical and subject to the same pattern of rise and fall seen in nature. It serves as a metaphor for the temporary prosperity that can lead to eventual decline if fundamental truths are ignored. This epoch, known for its lush vegetation and eventual formation of coal deposits, symbolizes the fleeting nature of human achievements if built on unsustainable practices.
The Gods of the Copybook Headings was created in 1919.
'The Gods of the Copybook Headings'
Rudyard Kipling wrote "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" as a warning against the dangers of abandoning traditional values and wisdom for modern ideologies and societal trends. The poem emphasizes the enduring importance of timeless truths and the consequences of ignoring them.
This is a quotation from Kipling's wise poem about the gods of the copybook headings. In the poem the feminian sandstones are a geological stratum representing a former age in which sexual mores declined as ours did in the last century, and the human race learned by natural selection that the wages of sin is death.
The meaning is pretty straightforward and is, to some extent, an answer to a search for meaning - or, at least, why things happen the way they do. The author (Rudyard Kipling) was an Englishmen who just lost his son in WWI. It is, in some sense, an explanation for the causes of war. Generally, the poem is saying two things: 1) The human condition repeats - and ends each time with war. 2) The further people get from common sense, the closer to the tipping point where common sense wil reassert itself. This is not a peaceful process but violent one. More specifically, it is saying the human condition is given to false gods - the Gods of the Market Place (a wholistic combination of government and business in league with each other). Sooner or later, after people realize that these gods cannot produce what they need and, indeed, when these false gods fail, common sense (the gods of the copybook headings) reasserts itself. Violence (war) ensues.
This is a quotation from Kipling's wise poem about the gods of the copybook headings. In the poem the feminian sandstones are a geological stratum representing a former age in which sexual mores declined as ours did in the last century, and the human race learned by natural selection that the wages of sin is death.
It is from the paragraph "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" Go to the following web site: http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_copybook.htm for the full poem with verses
The Gods of the copybook headingsThis is an excerpt, for the whole poem, follow the link provided to kipling . OrgAs it will be in the future, it was at the birth of ManThere 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;Rudyard Kipling
they can be gods of different things
there are no gods
There are both bad gods and good gods when it comes to the Egyptian gods.
There is not really an answer to that but the twelve gods were born to be gods