Martian poetry - Wikipedia Martian poetry From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search Movement in British poetry For poetry dealing with Martians or other extraterrestrials, see Extraterrestrial life in popular culture § Aliens in poetry. This article includes a list of general references, but it remains largely unverified because it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (December 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Martian poetry was a minor movement in British poetry in the late 1970s and early 1980s, in which everyday things and human behaviour are described in a strange way, as if by a visiting Martian who does not understand them. Poets most closely associated with it are Craig Raine and Christopher Reid. The term Martianism has also been applied more widely to include fiction as well as to poetry. The word martianism is, coincidentally, an anagram of the name of one of its principal exponents, Martin Amis, who promoted the work of both Raine and Reid in the Times Literary Supplement and the New Statesman.[1] Perhaps the best-known Martian poetry is Craig Raine's "A Martian Sends a Postcard Home" in which a Martian attempts to describe everyday human interactions and habits from his own point of view. Contents 1 Origins 2 References 2.1 Citations 2.2 Poetry 2.3 Anthologies 2.4 Commentary Origins[edit] The term derives from Raine's poem "A Martian Sends a Postcard Home" in which the narrator, a Martian, uncomprehendingly observes human behaviour and tries to describe it to fellow Martians. For examples, the narrator calls books "Caxtons" and describes them as: mechanical birds with many wings perch on the hand cause the eyes to melt or the body to shriek without pain This drive to make the familiar strange was carried into fiction by Martin Amis. His 1981 novel Other People: A Mystery Story where the story unfolds from the point of view of a protagonist who is apparently suffering from an extreme form of amnesia which causes her to lose her memory of even basic aspects of human experience. Martian poetry became a popular element in the teaching of poetry composition to school children. Related to Surrealism, it arose in the context of the experimental poetry of the late 1960s; but also owes a debt to a variety of English traditions including metaphysical poetry, Anglo-Saxon riddles, and nonsense poetry (e.g.: Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear). Samuel Johnson's descriptions of the metaphysical poets' approach where 'the most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together' could aptly describe much Martian poetry; in this context what was distinctive about Martian Poetry was its focus on visual experience. References[edit] Citations[edit] ^ Diedrick, page 58. Poetry[edit] Raine, Craig, The Onion, Memory, Oxford University Press, 1978. ISBN 0-19-211877-3. Reid, Christopher, Arcadia, Oxford University Press, 1979. ISBN 0-19-211889-7. Raine, Craig, A Martian Sends a Postcard Home, Oxford University Press, 1979. ISBN 0-19-211896-X. Reid, Christopher, Pea Soup, Oxford University Press, 1982. ISBN 0-19-211952-4. Anthologies[edit] Morrison, Blake & Motion, Andrew, The Penguin Book of Contemporary British Poetry, Penguin, 1982. ISBN 0-14-042283-8. Commentary[edit] Diedrick, James, Understanding Martin Amis University of South Carolina Press, 2004. ISBN 1-57003-516-4. O'Brien, Sean, The Deregulated Muse, Bloodaxe, 1998. ISBN 1-85224-281-7. Robinson, Alan, Instabilities in Contemporary British Poetry, Macmillan, 1988. ISBN 0-333-46769-8. v t e Schools of poetry Akhmatova's Orphans Angry Penguins Auden Group The Beats Black Arts Movement Black Mountain poets British Poetry Revival Cairo poets Castalian Band Cavalier poets Chhayavaad Churchyard poets Confessionalists Créolité Cyclic Poets Dada Deep image Della Cruscans Dolce Stil Novo Dymock poets Ecopoetry The poets of Elan Flarf Fugitives Garip Gay Saber Generation of '27 Generation of the '30s Generation of '98 Georgian poets Goliard The Group Harlem Renaissance Harvard Aesthetes Hungry generation Imagism Informationist poetry İkinci Yeni Jindyworobaks Lake Poets Language poets Martian poetry Metaphysical poets Misty Poets Modernist poetry The Movement Négritude Neotericism New American Poetry New Apocalyptics New Formalism New York School Objectivists Others Parnassian poets La Pléiade Rhymers' Club San Francisco Renaissance Scottish Renaissance Sicilian School Sons of Ben Southern Agrarians Spasmodic poets Sung poetry Surrealism Symbolism Uranian poetry Zutiste This poetry-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Martian_poetry&oldid=993053361" Categories: British poetry Poetry movements 20th-century British literature British literary movements Poetry stubs Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description matches Wikidata Articles lacking in-text citations from December 2020 All articles lacking in-text citations All stub articles Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version Languages Español Polski Edit links This page was last edited on 8 December 2020, at 15:25 (UTC). 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