A MARTIAN SENDS A POSTCARD HOME

BY CRAIG RAINE (1979)

CRAIG RAINE
Craig Raine was educated at Oxford. He is a poet, a novelist, and recently the poetry editor of
Faber and Faber, and an academic at New College, Oxford, where hi is now Emeritus Professor.
He is founder and editor of the literary magazine Arete. His first collection of poetry was
published in 1978, and he has gone on to produce eleven collections, in addition to two novels
and some literary criticisms.
Craig Raine is a British poet, born in 1944, who is known as an exponent of “Martian poetry”, by
which is meant the expression of familiar concepts in unfamiliar ways. The term derived from
his poem “A Martian Sends a Postcard Home”, which was first published in the “New
Statesman” in 1977.
One does not need to believe in Martians to enjoy this poem, only in the concept of being able
to perceive human behavior and institutions with complete detachment, as though one had
never come across them before. Or rather, as Craig Raine does, to express one’s impressions of
humanity in terms that seem strange and puzzling at first and need a little working out before
one realizes what it is to which the poet is referring. It is in working out the puzzles that the
reader derives a lot of fun from this poem.

Caxtons are mechanical birds with many a key is turned to free the world
wings
and some are treasured for their for movement, so quick there is a film
markings – to watch for anything missed.

they cause the eyes to melt

or the body to shriek without pain.
I have never seen one fly, but
sometimes they perch on the hand.
Mist is when the sky is tired of flight
and rests its soft machine on ground:
then the world is dim and bookish
like engravings under tissue paper.
Rain is when the earth is television.
It has the property of making colours
darker.
But time is tied to the wrist
or kept in a box, ticking with impatience.
In homes, a haunted apparatus sleeps,
that snores when you pick it up.
If the ghost cries, they carry it
to their lips and soothe it to sleep
with sounds. And yet, they wake it up
deliberately, by tickling with a finger.
Only the young are allowed to suffer
openly. Adults go to a punishment room

Model T is a room with the lock inside – with water but nothing to eat.
They lock the door and suffer the noises
alone. No one is exempt
and everyone’s pain has a different
smell.
At night, when all the colours die,
they hide in pairs
and read about themselves –
in colour, with their eyelids shut.

This poem seeks to describe human behavior and objects as if they are being seen for the first
time by a visiting Martian, Consequently, the tone is detached and objective, but also
inquisitive. The ordinary and common place are illuminated by a fresh perspective in 34
unrhymed couplets. While in the poem is almost like a series of riddles that invite the reader to
decipher them, the use of language is original and evocative.
The first puzzle is given the name “Caxtons”, which are “mechanical birds with many wings …
[that] cause the eyes to melt /or the body to shriek without pain.” Although these “birds” have
never been seen to fly, “sometimes they perch on the hand”. It may seem a little incongruous
that our Martian does not know the word “book” but does know that William Caxton invented
printing! That said, it is the outsider’s description of crying and laughing that strikes the reader
most forcibly.
The poem then moves on to describe two forms of weather, namely mist and rain. Mist is
“when the sky is tired of flight / and rests its soft machine on the ground”, which is not only
perceptive, but a rather beautiful description of what mist is. Then comes a very different
account of rain, “when the earth is television”, which is a wholly unexpected piece of imagery.
However, just as one can adjust the brightness of a TV screen, so does rain have “the property
of making colors darker”.
In describing how a car works the Martian turns everything inside out, in terms of how a human
might regard things. The reader has also to imagine that this Martian has read something about
cars but very little, so that just as books are “Caxtons” the only car available is the “Model T”.
This is “a room with the lock inside” such that the key “is turned to free the world / for
movement”. He then presents a puzzle with “there is a film / to watch for anything missed”.
Just as movies appear on screens, large and small, so does the outside world pass by when seen
in the car’s rear-view mirror.
The Martian’s idea of time is that it is “tied to the wrist / or kept in a box”, but he is also able to
assign an inappropriate human quality to time by describing it as “ticking with impatience”.
The most intriguing puzzle in the poem is that of the “haunted apparatus” that “snores when
you pick it up”. This thing can cry, and humans then “carry it / to their lips and soothe it to sleep
/ with sounds.” Just as with the watches and clocks mentioned above, the Martian cannot
distinguish between organic and inorganic objects, with the result that the reader might think
that a baby or a cat is being referred to, whereas it soon becomes clear that this “apparatus” is
a dial telephone that can be woken by “tickling with a finger”.
The poem ends by concentrating on human habits, notably their frequent recourse to “a
punishment room / with water but nothing to eat.” Given that they lock the door and then
“suffer the noises / alone”, one can soon see how a Martian might confuse a toilet with a prison
cell. Finally, humans “hide in pairs” and their dreaming is described as “read[ing] about
themselves / in colour, with their eyelids shut”.
As mentioned above, it is important not to take the concept of a Martian visiting Planet Earth
too seriously. Indeed, many of the observations would work just as well if spoken by a child.
The use of the Martian is therefore a narrative device for “seeing ourselves as others see us”
and pointing to the strangeness of some of the actions of humans if removed from their
context. That said, the Martian still comes across as a believable character with his own
personality. His ignorance of what is really going on, and his dogmatic pronouncements based
purely on his observations, give him a persona that amuses as he manages both to interpret
human matters in mechanical terms and inorganic things in terms of living ones (the tired sky,
impatient time, a snoring telephone, etc).
The Martian’s muddle-headedness works because the reader is reminded of how humans are
often just as confused when faced with things that they do not understand. The poem succeeds
by focusing on concepts that, for most readers, need no explanation and showing that if the
context and familiarity are stripped away they could appear to be very puzzling indeed. The
reader can laugh at the Martian but must also bear in mind that anyone, when thrown into a
completely new environment that need not be all that far from home, can make similar
mistakes that would strike those “in the know” as being equally deserving of ridicule.