Proto-sf-adjacent poetry published during the genre’s emergent Radium Age (c. 1900–1935). Research and selection, plus eccentric/evolving categorization effort, by HILOBROW’s Josh Glenn.
A new installment in this series is published every five days. We have poems lined up through 2027….
Also see: RADIUM AGE ART | RADIUM AGE TIMELINE.
Radium Age AFROFUTURISM poems include…
ADAPTATION & HYBRIDITY: 1914–1923 Jean Toomer’s HER LIPS ARE COPPER WIRE (1923). *
* These could also be categorized as UNKNOWABLE ALIENS / SINGULARITY poems.
AFTER WHITE HEGEMONY: 1914–1923 Maurice N. Corbett’s BLACK KINGDOMS OF THE FUTURE (1914). *
* These could also be categorized as CATASTROPHE poems, in the subcategory DECLINE AND FALL OF (WHITE/WESTERN) CIVILIZATION.
BLOODY VISIONS: 1904–1913 Lucian B. Watkins’s SAN FRANCISCO’S 18th OF APRIL (1906) (1907). 1914–1923 Leslie Pinckney Hill’s ARMAGEDDON (1915). *
* These could also be categorized as CATASTROPHE or FUTURE WAR poems.
SWEET CHARIOTS: 1904–1913 William Stanley Braithwaite’s DISTANCES (1904). 1914–1923 William Stanley Braithwaite’s DEL CASCAR (1922). *
“The idea of a space ark strongly resonated, in the 1970s, for African Americans — and for many of us, still today.” — Adrienne Crew, “Sweet Chariots”
* These could also be categorized as COSMIC AWE poems.
STAY TUNED! William Stanley Braithwaite’s THE VISION | Anna Elizabeth Cofer’s THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO | Maurice N. Corbett’s “A CRISIS NOW IS NEAR…” | Maurice N. Corbett’s THE FUTURE | W.E.B. Du Bois’ “BEWILDERED, WE ARE…” | James T. Franklin’s ASTRONOMY | James T. Franklin’s “BUT THE MAN NOT YET IS SATISFIED…” | Charles Bertram Johnson’s THE DREAMER | Charles Bertram Johnson’s SOUL AND STAR | Fenton Johnson’s TIRED | H.T. Johnson’s AMERICA’S SEVENTH WONDER | Claude McKay’s AMERICA | Claude McKay’s TO THE INTRENCHED CLASSES | & more to come.
Radium Age CATASTROPHE poems include…
AFTER WHITE HEGEMONY: See AFROFUTURISM.
BITE THE BULLET: See FUTURE WAR.
BLOODY VISIONS: See AFROFUTURISM.
DECLINE & FALL OF (WHITE/WESTERN) CIVILIZATION: Valery Bryusov’s THE DAYS SHALL COME OF FINAL DESOLATION (1899). 1904–1913 Valery Bryusov’s THE COMING HUNS (1904–05) | . 1914–1923 Osbert Sitwell’s THE END (1917) | Sara Teasdale’s “THERE WILL COME SOFT RAINS” (1918) | Eve Brodlique Summers’s OF RUINED CITIES (1919) | William Butler Yeats’s THE SECOND COMING (1920) | D.H. Lawrence’s THE REVOLUTIONARY (1921) | Lee Wilson Dodd’s VACUUM (1923) | Louis Ginsberg’s WATERFALLS OF STONE (1923). 1924–1933 D.H. Lawrence’s TO LET GO OR TO HOLD ON —? (1929) | Archibald MacLeish’s EPISTLE TO BE LEFT TO THE EARTH (1930) | D.H. Lawrence’s THE TRIUMPH OF THE MACHINE (1932) | John Lehmann’s THIS EXCELLENT MACHINE (1932) | Louis MacNeice’s AN ECLOGUE FOR CHRISTMAS (1934). Plus: Karel Čapek’s WHAT OUR AGE HAS DONE (1936). *
* These could be sub-categorized into the various causes of (white/western) civilization’s decline and fall.
DEEP TIME: See COSMIC AWE.
DYING EARTH (or DEAD MOON): 1904–1913 John Davidson’s “EARTH ALREADY TO ITS DOOM…” (1904) | Maximilian Voloshin’s SONNET XV (1913). 1914–1923 Robert Frost’s FIRE AND ICE (1920) |
F.V. Branford’s THE MOON (1922). 1924–1933 Julian Huxley’s COSMIC DEATH (1932). PLUS: Robinson Jeffers’s NOVA (c. 1935–38) | Frederik Pohl’s ELEGY TO A DEAD PLANET: LUNA (1937). *
* These could also be categorized as COSMIC AWE poems.
DIRTY OLD TOWN: See DYSTOPIA / UTOPIA.
ENVIRONMENTAL / PANDEMIC: 1904–1913 Jakob van Hoddis’s WELTENDE (1911). 1924–1933 Stephen Vincent Benét’s METROPOLITAN NIGHTMARE (1927?) | W.H. Auden’s GARE DU MIDI (c. 1930).
OVERREACH: See SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGH.
STAY TUNED! Ambrose Beirce’s FAME | Ambrose Beirce’s THE PASSING SHOW | T.S. Eliot’s “THE EYES ARE NOT HERE” | Ralph Milne Farley’s THE END OF THE WORLD | Robinson Jeffers’ SHINE, PERISHING REPUBLIC | Amy Lowell’s THE CYCLISTS | Amy Lowell’s “IF A SAND-STORM WOULD COME…” | Vladimir Mayakovsky’s OUR MARCH | Archibald MacLeish’s THE END OF THE WORLD | Vladimir Mayakovsky’s GREAT BIG HELL OF A CITY | Clark Ashton Smith’s AFTER ARMAGEDDON | Wallace Stevens’s A POSTCARD FROM THE VOLCANO | Stanley G. Weinbaum’s TWO SUNSETS. & more to come.
Radium Age COSMIC AWE poems include…
ATOMIC SUBLIME: See DISENCHANTMENT / UNSEEN FORCES.
DEEP TIME: 1904–1913 Ford Madox Ford’s THE MOTHER (1904). 1914–1923 Eric Temple Bell’s “TIME IS A MARVEL…” (1916) | Sara Teasdale’s THE VOICE (1920). *
* These could also be categorized as CATASTROPHE poems.
DYING EARTH (or MOON): See CATASTROPHE.
IS THERE LIFE ON MARS: 1914–1923 Clark Ashton Smith’s THE STAR-TREADER (1912) | Valery Bryusov’s THE VOICE OF OTHER WORLDS (1917). 1924–1933 Olaf Stapledon’s “IF MAN ENCOUNTER…” (1932). *
* These could also be categorized as UNKNOWABLE ALIENS / SINGULARITY poems.
MATHEMATICAL SUBLIME: See FAR-OUT MATHEMATICS / FOURTH DIMENSION.
OVERVIEW EFFECT: 1924–1933 Andrey Bely’s EUTHANASIA (c. 1927) | Alexander Blok’s “INTO CRIMSON DARK” (c. 1927) | D.H. Lawrence’s SPACE (1929).
STARS WHEEL IN PURPLE (PROSE): 1914–1923 Edith Södergran’s ON FOOT I HAD TO… (c. 1920) | Alfred Noyes’s WATCHERS OF THE SKY )(1922). 1924–1933 H.D.’s STARS WHEEL IN PURPLE (1931). *
* Poems that seem to mock this trope include: 1904–1913 Anonymous’s ASTRONOMIC JOSH (1908). 1914–1923 Irma Valeria’s LET’S LAUGH AT THE UNIVERSE (1917) | Kenneth Rexroth’s “HEAVEN IS FULL OF DEFINITE STARS…” (w. 1920–25). 1924–1933 William Empson’s LETTER I (c. 1930). PLUS: Robert Frost’s DESERT PLACES (1934)
SWEET CHARIOTS: See AFROFUTURISM.
STAY TUNED! Valery Bryusov’s CHILDHOOD FANCIES | C. Day Lewis’s FROM FEATHERS TO IRON | Herbert Read’s MUTATIONS OF THE PHŒNIX | Michael Roberts’s MIDNIGHT | Olaf Stapledon’s “IS MAN A DISEASE…” | Paul Valéry’s THE YOUNG FATE. & more to come.
Radium Age DEHUMANIZATION poems include…
CYBORG MANIFESTO: 1914–1923 Randolph Bourne’s SABOTAGE (1912) | Jessica Dismorr’s MONOLOGUE (1915). 1924–1933 D.H. Lawrence’s ROBOT FEELINGS (1932). *
* These could also be categorized as NEW TECHNOLOGIES and/or UNKNOWABLE ALIENS / SINGULARITY poems.
MECHANIZATION: 1914–1923 Carl Sandburg’s MANUAL SYSTEM (1920) | T.S. Eliot’s “AT THE VIOLET HOUR…” (1922). 1924–1933 D.H. Lawrence’s LET US BE MEN (1929) | D.H. Lawrence’s DARK SATANIC MILLS (1932) | D.H. Lawrence’s THE GULF (1932). PLUS: Amy Lowell’s A COMPARISON (date unclear).
THINGS ARE IN THE SADDLE: See NEW TECHNOLOGIES.
STAY TUNED! W.W. Gibson’s THE MACHINE | D.H. Lawrence’s MAN AND MACHINE | D.H. Lawrence’s HOLD BACK! | D.H. Lawrence’s MEN LIKE GODS | D.H. Lawrence’s SOULS TO SAVE | D.H. Lawrence’s THE GODS! THE GODS! | Armando Mazza’s TORMENTS | & more to come.
Radium Age DISENCHANTMENT / UNSEEN FORCES poems include…
ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE: Aldous Huxley’s FIFTH PHILOSOPHER’S SONG.
ATOMIC SUBLIME: George Sterling’s THE TESTIMONY OF THE SUNS (1903). 1904–1913 John Davidson’s “MATTER INCANDESCENT” (1904) | Clark Ashton Smith’s THE NEMESIS OF SUNS (1912). 1914–1923 Eva Amendola Kühn’s “COSMIC FORCES…” (1917) | Thomas Thornely’s THE ATOM (1921) | F.V. Branford’s MASTER CELLS (1922). 1924–1933 Michael Roberts’s ROCKS ARE IMMUTABLE (1930). *
* These could also be categorized as COSMIC AWE poems.
GEOPHYSICAL SUBLIME: See SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGHS.
MICROSCOPIC SUBLIME: See SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGHS.
SCIENCE FANTASY: 1904–1913 Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s TO MY PEGASUS (1908).
SOUL SEARCHING: 1904–1913 Ford Madox Ford’s GREY MATTER (1904). 1914–1923 Herbert Read’s EQUATION (1923). 1924–1933 Walter Lowenfels’ APOLLINAIRE AN ELEGY (1930). *
* Poems that seem to mock this trope include: H.L. Mencken’s A BALLAD OF LOOKING (1903) 1924–1933 Thomas Hardy’s EPITAPH FOR G.K. CHESTERTON (1928).
TECHNOLOGICAL SUBLIME: See NEW TECHNOLOGIES.
STAY TUNED! T.E. Hulme’s CINDERS | Herbert Read’s THE RETREAT | & more to come.
Radium Age DYSTOPIA / UTOPIA poems include…
BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN: 1914–1923 Mina Loy’s LUNAR BAEDEKER (1923).
BRAVE NEW WORLD: 1914–1923 D.H. Lawrence’s SUBURBS ON A HAZY DAY (c. 1913–28) | D.H. Lawrence’s THE EVENING LAND (1922).
DIRTY OLD TOWN: 1914–1923 Anna Akhmatova’s “ALL IS SOLD, ALL IS LOST” (1921) | T.S. Eliot’s “WHAT IS THAT SOUND…” (1922). *
* These could also be categorized as CATASTROPHE poems.
FROM EACH ACCORDING TO HIS ABILITIES: 1914–1923 Aleksei Gastev’s FACTORY WHISTLES (1918). *
* Poems that seem to mock this trope include: 1904–1913 Rudyard Kipling’s MACDONOUGH’S SONG (1912). 1914–1923 Wallace Stevens’s THE IDEA OF A COLONY (1923) | C.S. Lewis’s DYMER (1926).
STAY TUNED! Ambrose Bierce’s ELIXIR VITAE | George William Russell’s THE CITIES | & more to come.
Radium Age FAR-OUT MATHEMATICS / FOURTH DIMENSION poems include…
MATHEMATICAL SUBLIME: 1904–1913 Valery Bryusov’s NUMBERS (1913). 1914–1923 Laurence Binyon’s NUMBERS (1919) | F.V. Branford’s FAREWELL TO MATHEMATICS (1919) | Velimir Khlebnikov’s “THERE IS THAT SMELL…” (1922). *
Kant’s Critique of Judgment distinguishes “a dynamic sublime,” found in power and turbulence, from “a mathematical sublime,” where vastness stretches without limit.
* These could also be categorized as DISENCHANTMENT / UNSEEN FORCES poems.
NON-EUCLIDEAN GEOMETRY: 1914–1923 Gertrude Stein’s A CARAFE, THAT IS A BLIND GLASS (1914) | Amy Lowell’s MIDDAY AND AFTERNOON (1916). 1924–1933 Archibald MacLeish’s SIGNATURE FOR TEMPO (1926) | W.H. Auden’s IN THE LAST OF THE OLD YEAR (w. 1926/27).
POETRY OF LOGICAL IDEAS: 1914–1923 Edna St. Vincent Millay’s EUCLID ALONE (1922). 1924–1933 Michael Roberts’s PERSPECTIVE (1930). PLUS: Frederick Soddy’s THE KISS PRECISE (1936). *
“Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.” — Albert Einstein
* Poems that seem to mock this trope include: 1914–1923 Vachel Lindsay’s EUCLID (1914) | Wallace Stevens’s “RATIONALISTS, WEARING SQUARE HATS” (1923). 1924–1933 Emil Raymond’s REFRACTION OF LIGHT (1924) | Emma Rounds’s PLANE GEOMETRY (1925).
QUANTUM REALM: See SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGH.
STAY TUNED! Louis MacNeice’s REFLECTIONS | Max Weber’s THE EYE MOMENT | Lionel Wiggam’s MATHEMATICS | & more to come.
Radium Age FUTURE WAR poems include…
BITE THE BULLET: 1904–1913 J. Lewis Milligan’s THE SUPER-MAN (1910). 1914–1923 Robert Grant’s THE SUPERMAN (c. 1917) | Guillaume Apollinaire’s THE LITTLE CAR (1918). 1924–1933 D.H. Lawrence’s FUTURE WAR (c. 1930). *
* These could also be categorized as CATASTROPHE poems. The superhuman-themed poems could be categorized as UNKNOWABLE ALIEN / SINGULARITY.
BLOODY VISIONS: See AFROFUTURISM.
DEATH FROM ABOVE: 1904–1913 Charles M. Doughty’s THE CLIFFS (1909). 1914–1923 Amy Lowell’s VENICE AGAIN (1918) | D.H. Lawrence’s BOMBARDMENT (1919) | Nancy Cunard’s ZEPPELINS (1921). 1924–1933 Blaise Cendrar’s ORION (1928).
WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION: 1914–1923 Rudyard Kipling’s THE TRADE (1916).
STAY TUNED! Laurence Binyon’s THE ZEPPELIN | Enrico Cavacchioli’s THE MISSILE | Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s BOMBARDMENT | & more to come.
Radium Age NEW TECHNOLOGIES poems include…
CYBORG MANIFESTO: See DEHUMANIZATON.
PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES: Blaise Cendrars’ “…I’M ON THE WAY” | Adele Gloria’s EXPRESS TRAIN NO. 89 | Max Jacob’s INVITATION TO A VOYAGE | C. Day Lewis’s “AIR WAS ALL AMBUSHES”.
TECHNOLOGICAL SUBLIME: Valery Bryusov’s DUSK | Hart Crane’s LINES SENT TO ALFRED STIEGLITZ | W.E. Henley’s A SONG OF SPEED | Vicente Huidobro’s EIFFEL TOWER | Rudyard Kipling’s THE SECRET OF THE MACHINES | Harriet Monroe’s A POWER-PLANT | Harriet Monroe’s THE TELEPHONE | Harriet Monroe’s THE TURBINE. * **
* These could also be categorized as DISENCHANTMENT / UNSEEN FORCES poems.
** Poems that seem to mock this trope include: Walter Lowenfels’s FROM AN EXPOSITION OF POWER AND INDUSTRIAL MACHINERY | Stephen Spender’s THE PYLONS.
THINGS ARE IN THE SADDLE: Charles Buxton Going’s THE SONG OF STEEL | Louis Untermeyer’s PORTRAIT OF A MACHINE. *
* These could also be categorized as DEHUMANIZATION poems.
“Things are in the saddle, and ride mankind.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson.
STAY TUNED! Apollinaire’s ZONE | Margaret Ashmun’s THE GREATER POWER | Ambrose Bierce’s THE DIVISION SUPERINTENDENT | Gordon Bottomley’s TO IRON-FOUNDERS AND OTHERS | Zinaida Gippius’ ELECTRICITY | Herbert Read’s THE INNOCENT EYE | Archibald Rutledge’s RADIO | Carl Sandburg’s UNDER A TELEPHONE POLE | Edith Sitwell’s THE LADY WITH THE SEWING MACHINE | & more to come.
Radium Age SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGH poems include…
GEOPHYSICAL SUBLIME: D.H. Lawrence’s UNDERNEATH | Hugh MacDiarmid’s STONY LIMITS. *
* These could also be categorized as DISENCHANTMENT / UNSEEN FORCES poems.
MICROSCOPIC SUBLIME: Robert Bridges’ THE TESTAMENT OF BEAUTY | Angela Morgan’s TO MADAME CURIE | D.H. Lawrence’s THE THIRD THING | Ronald Ross’s THE ANNIVERSARY. *
* These could also be categorized as DISENCHANTMENT / UNSEEN FORCES poems.
OVERREACH: Robinson Jeffers’s SCIENCE | Robinson Jeffers’s TRIAD | Vachel Lindsay’s THE SCIENTIFIC ASPIRATION | Archibald MacLeish’s MAN! | W.J. Turner’s MISS AMERICA. *
* These could also be categorized as CATASTROPHE poems.
QUANTUM REALM: A.S. Eddington’s ONE THING IS CERTAIN | D.H. Lawrence’s RELATIVITY | Archibald MacLeish’s EINSTEIN | Michael Roberts’s NOTE ON Θ, Φ, and Ψ | Michael Roberts’s SIRIUS B | W.J. Turner’s IN TIME LIKE GLASS. * **
* These could also be categorized as FAR-OUT MATHEMATICS / FOURTH DIMENSION poems.
** Poems that seem to mock this trope include: Kathleen Millay’s RELATIVITY.
STATISTICS: Charles Wharton Stork’s THE STATISTICIAN. *
* Poems that seem to mock this trope include: A.S. Eddington’s “THERE ONCE WAS A BREATHY BABOON”.
STAY TUNED! Valery Bryusov’s THREE APPLES | Robert Garioch’s TRANSLATIONS FROM AN UNWRITTEN POEM | W.W. Gibson’s WINDOWS | Robinson Jeffers’s NEW YEAR’S EVE | Julian Huxley’s TO A DANCER | D.H. Lawrence’s GIVE US GODS | Agnes Lee’s RADIUM | Vachel Lindsay’s THE HORRID VOICE OF SCIENCE | Hugh MacDiarmid’s THALAMUS | Herbert Read’s THE ANALYSIS OF LOVE | Erwin F. Smith’s SCIENCE | John Collings Squire’s THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST | & more to come.
Radium Age UNKNOWABLE ALIENS / SINGULARITY poems include…
ADAPTATION & HYBRIDITY: See AFROFUTURISM.
ALIEN INVASION: Robert Graves’s WELSH INCIDENT.
BITE THE BULLET: See FUTURE WAR for a few superhuman-themed poems.
CYBORG MANIFESTO: See DEHUMANIZATION.
HOMO SUPERIOR: Robinson Jeffers’s ROAN STALLION.
IS THERE LIFE ON MARS: See COSMIC AWE.
UPLOADED CONSCIOUSNESS: W.B. Yeats’s SAILING TO BYZANTIUM.
WATCHERS: Max Beerbohm’s A SEQUELULA TO “THE DYNASTS”.
STAY TUNED! D.H. Lawrence’s WELLSIAN FUTURES | & more to come.
Radium Age sf-adjacent poems that so far resist categorization include…
William Empson’s INVITATION TO JUNO | Aleksei Kruchenykh’s DYR BUL SHCHYL | Aleksei Kruchenykh’s “I COOKED MY BRAIN…” | C. Day Lewis’s TRANSITIONAL POEM | Vladimir Mayakovsky’s FROM “I” | Hugh MacDiarmid’s A DRUNK MAN LOOKS AT THE THISTLE | Marianne Moore’s IN THE DAYS OF PRISMATIC COLOR | Clark Ashton Smith’s AFTERWARDS.
STAY TUNED! Pierre Drieu de la Rochelle’s ROUNDNESS | W.W. Gibson’s FLANNAN ISLE | Vasilisk Gnedov’s POEM OF THE END | Kenneth Rexroth’s “FROM ANY EVENT INTERVALS…”| Igor Severyanin’s STRANGE | & more to come.