Wish You Were Here
Uploaded by jo_dunk on Jan 03, 2002
A poet is that which the Greeks called a maker: his Art
an art of imitation, of faining: expressing the life of man in
fit measure, numbers, and harmony, according to Aristotle…
A poet…writes things like the Truth.1.
The metaphorical marvel that is Craig Raine’s ‘A Martian Sends a Postcard Home’ specific purpose is to compel us through the virginal eyes of another, to look at everyday, inanimate objects in a new perspective. Raine attempts this by disguising the dramatic monologue as a postcard. In this simile he can entrust the recipient to decipher the figurative fragments of verse. The poem is: “…addressed from one individual [a martian] to another in a way that [implies it] would be read in private by a single reader”.2. Thus, the poet’s own personal and obscure view can be expressed. Raine chooses an alien as an ‘intelligent eye’ to ponder and ridicule human qualities of impatience, frailty, proneness to haste, prosperity and weakness. Displaying his own impatience, frustration and despair at these unenviable attributes we possess. The sequences of events are displayed in a chronological order, developing coherently the alien’s view of his one-day visitors’ pass to Earth. The journey begins: “Caxtons are mechanical birds with many wings”. Caxtons are the original printers, ‘mechanical’ denoting; of or using machinery; printing press. ‘Wings’ connote pages. Raine is illustrating a book. By using the word ‘mechanical’ Raine is defining books; as void or lacking of thought or emotion. In contradictory terms Raine completes the first stanza: “…and some are treasured for their markings”, insinuating their opposing wealth and riches. The first line ends with a one-syllable (masculine) ‘wings’, and concludes on the second line with a two-syllable (feminine), rhyming; ‘markings’. The non-metrical form continues its’ opposing theme in the second stanza…
they cause the eyes to melt
or the body to shriek without pain.
Pain is linked to joy in this oxymoron to reflect awe and bewilderment. The thought or emotion that was lacking earlier in the books is now depicted in us as we read them. Laughing and crying are opposing contrasts, causing opposing feelings as we read. The words ‘shriek’ and ‘melting’ are qualifiers, ‘eyes melting’, ‘body shrieking’ impose more meaning than ‘crying’ and ‘laughing’…
the content of each individual line dictates its length,
its own number of measures…This kind of poetry often
uses some type of linguistic pattern, such as repetition,
to replace the regular metrical pattern we usually...