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. |
| 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 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. |
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