Poetry

From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959

Fantasy poetry of course dates from the earliest times. Science-fiction has not seemed such a good subject for poetic flights, but efforts have been made by fans (some worthy) and among famous poets scientistic pieces are found -- notably in Tennyson and Kipling -- tho some with stfnal themes are actually anti-science. In fandom and the proz we have: ballads, usually of rather simple appeal; a couple of epics; such semi-narrative and descriptive poems as "Passing of the Planets"; store of poetry expressing personal feeling with no connection with fantasy save that fantasy fans have written it or Red Moon, Martian Lover, first space flight, ktp, are substituted for mundane themes; dadaistic and metaphysical stuff; jingles like daffy poetics; and a great many parodies of various types of poems and songs. All the familiar verse forms are used. Lowndes and others have written many sonnets (and Lovecraft's Fungi from Yuggoth are favorites), vers libre is popular with our Bohemians, Speer has plugged the Anglo-Saxon measure. Standard stanza division is usual in poems of more than filler size; there has been comparatively little blank verse. All-poetry booklets appear with reasonable frequency. FAPA has a poetry laureate, and a short-lived SF Poets' Guild was organized by Pohl in 1938.

See also: Anglo-Saxon Poetry, Daffy Poetics, Little Willy Verses, Metaphysical Poetry, Non-Poetry, Scifaiku, Speculative Poetry, Vers Libre, Widowers, Science Fiction Poetry Association.

Poetry fanzines and semiprozines include: Arion, Bleak December, Cataclysm, Challenge, Eye to the Telescope, Gafia Poetry Leaflet Series, Inner Circle, The Magazine of Speculative Poetry, Nepenthe, Perdita: Songs of Love Sex and Self Pity, The Silent Planet, Snowflakes in the Sun, Starlanes, Star*Line, Treaders of Starlight.

From Fancyclopedia 1, ca. 1944

Fantasy poetry of course dates from earliest times. Science-fiction has not seemed such a good theme for poetic flites, but efforts have been made by fans, some worthy, and among great poets sciencistic pieces were found, notably in Tennyson. A good example of purely science-fiction poetry is the Planet Prince's quatrain: "And my mind goes soaring upward Far beyond our dreary ken To a desert dying planet And a dying race of men." A bit over done, but genuine. In fandom and the pros we have: ballads, usually of rather simple appeal; one epic; other semi-narrative and descriptive poems such as "Passing of the Planets"; store of love lyrics and others expressing personal feeling, which have no connection with fantasy except that fantasy fans have written them, as well as numerous fantasy lyrics addressed to Red Moon or a Martian lover or the first space flite; dadistic and metaphysical stuff; jingles like daffy poetics; and a great many parodies of various types of poems and songs. All the familiar verse forms are used. Lowndes and others have written many sonnets (Lovecraft's Fungi from Yuggoth are favorites), vers libre is popular with our Bohemians, Speer has plugged the Anglo-Saxon measure. Standard stanza division is usually in poems of grater than filler size; there has been comparatively little blank vers. All poetry booklets appear rather often. There was a short-lived SF Poets' Guild. The FAPA has a poetry laureate.

Jack Speer was extremely selective in choosing just that one quatrain above. Here’s the complete poem, from the November 1929 issue of Science Wonder Stories:

  My Little Martian Sweetheart
      By The Planet Prince. 

How this man-filled world seems vacant 
  When the long earth-day is o’er!
As I sit in my apartment
  On the hundred-twentieth floor.

Then my mind goes soaring upward. 
  Far beyond our dreary ken. 
To a desert, dying planet. 
  And a dying race of men.

Oh, my little Martian sweetheart
  In your crimson world afar,
I will soon be up to greet you
  In my little space-o-car. 

You will steal away to meet me
  In the garden in the air,
O’er the great canals that vanish
  ’Neath the polar ice-caps’ flare.

And will swoop into the darkness
  On our stellar journey start,
While your tiny Martian moonlets 
  Through your fearful heavens dart.

Passing them with speed of lightning,
  Scaling steps of untold height,
Darting through a whirl of comets,
  Dashing through a spray of light.

Diving, lighting, climbing, looping,
  Through the universe of space,
Till the warm red blood is pumping,
  And we check our headlong pace.

Sailing there in all our splendor,
  Through the darkest voids of space,
Far from where our distant Daystar
  Shows his point-diminished face.

And you’ll turn those red lips upward,
  Eyelids drooping like a hood—
Careful, little Martian sweetheart, 
  Earthly man is not of wood!

For those blue eyes, all alluring,
  Seem to beg a loving kiss,
And my dreams float swiftly backward,
  To the scenes of Terra’s bliss.

For I see a Terrene cottage,
  Hung with vines of earthly green,
Where, my little Martian sweetheart,
  You will reign, my lifelong queen. 

So, my little Martian sweetheart
  In your crimson world afar,
I will soon be up to greet you
  In my little space-o-car.

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