Martian poetry was a minor movement in

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

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 Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, has appeared as a setting in works of fiction since at least the mid-1600s. It became the most popular celestial object in fiction in the late 1800s as the Moon was evidently lifeless. At the time, the pred ...

who does not understand them. Poets most closely associated with it are

Craig Raine Craig Anthony Raine, FRSL (born 3 December 1944) is an English contemporary poet. Along with Christopher Reid, he is a notable pioneer of Martian poetry, a movement that expresses alienation with the world, society and objects. He was a fellow o ...

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 Martin Louis Amis (born 25 August 1949) is a British novelist, essayist, memoirist, and screenwriter. He is best known for his novels ''Money'' (1984) and '' London Fields'' (1989). He received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his memoir ' ...

, who promoted the work of both Raine and Reid in the ''

Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication i ...

'' and the ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members o ...

''.Diedrick, page 58. 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.

Origins

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 Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or disease,Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R., & Mangun, G. (2009) Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. but it can also be caused temporarily by the use o ...

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 Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

, 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 The term Metaphysical poets was coined by the critic Samuel Johnson to describe a loose group of 17th-century English poets whose work was characterised by the inventive use of conceits, and by a greater emphasis on the spoken rather than lyrica ...

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wit ...

riddles A riddle is a statement, question or phrase having a double or veiled meaning, put forth as a puzzle to be solved. Riddles are of two types: ''enigmas'', which are problems generally expressed in metaphorical or allegorical language that requi ...

, and

nonsense poetry Nonsense verse is a form of nonsense literature usually employing strong prosodic elements like rhythm and rhyme. It is often whimsical and humorous in tone and employs some of the techniques of nonsense literature. Limericks are probably the ...

(e.g.:

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its seque ...

Edward Lear Edward Lear (12 May 1812 – 29 January 1888) was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, who is known mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limericks, a form he popularised. His principal a ...

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford D ...

'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

Citations

Poetry

* Raine, Craig, ''The Onion, Memory'', Oxford University Press, 1978. . * Reid, Christopher, ''Arcadia'', Oxford University Press, 1979. . * Raine, Craig, ''A Martian Sends a Postcard Home'', Oxford University Press, 1979. . * Reid, Christopher, ''Pea Soup'', Oxford University Press, 1982. .

Anthologies

* Morrison, Blake & Motion, Andrew, ''The Penguin Book of Contemporary British Poetry'', Penguin, 1982. .

Commentary

* Diedrick, James, ''Understanding Martin Amis'' University of South Carolina Press, 2004. . * O'Brien, Sean, ''The Deregulated Muse'', Bloodaxe, 1998. . * Robinson, Alan, ''Instabilities in Contemporary British Poetry'', Macmillan, 1988. . British poetry Poetry movements 20th-century British literature British literary movements {{poetry-stub