The Full Text of “A Martian Sends a Postcard Home”
The Full Text of “A Martian Sends a Postcard Home”
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“A Martian Sends a Postcard Home” Introduction
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Craig Raine's "A Martian Sends a Postcard Home" is probably the best-known example of "Martian poetry," a British movement from the 1970s and 1980s. Its speaker, as the title suggests, is a Martian visiting Earth. Reporting back to Mars, the speaker describes various things on our planet—including rain, clocks, and dreams—from an alien perspective, making everyday phenomena seem strange. The poem's metaphors and imagery cast human life in an unexpected light; at times, the Martian's descriptions even feel like puzzles for the reader. "A Martian Sends a Postcard Home" was collected in Raine's 1980 volume of the same title.
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“A Martian Sends a Postcard Home” Summary
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Books, which were first printed by William Caxton, are shaped like birds; each page is like a wing. There are words inside books, some of which are special.
Sometimes those words make readers cry, laugh, or make other exclamations.
These birds don't actually fly, but I have seen them rest in readers' hands the same way real birds perch on trees.
When there's mist outside, it's like the sky wants to settle onto the ground because it got tired of holding itself in the air.
Mist makes the world grow dim and blurry, like the atmosphere of a dark library, recalling the way engravings seem softer when viewed through a sheet of tissue.
When it rains, the world looks like imperfect images on TV. The rain makes colors dimmer.
Cars, like Ford's Model T, resemble rooms that you lock when you get inside. When you turn the key, the world starts moving.
Outside the window, it looks like a movie displays the world passing by as you drive.
Humans keep time through watches on wrists, or through clocks that tick constantly, as if waiting for something.
At home, humans have devices—telephones—that seem haunted by ghosts. When humans pick up these devices, they make noise that sounds like snoring.
When they ring, humans silence the ring by raising the phone to their face to talk, so that they seem to be lulling the phone to sleep.
At other times, however, humans activate phones by touching them with their fingers, as though tickling them.
Children can cry (or relieve themselves) openly, but adults can only express their pain (or relieve themselves) in private.
All adults have to visit the bathroom, which is a room with water but no food. Once inside, they lock the door and suffer an experience that is painful and smelly—so unpleasant that it seems like a form of punishment.
At night, when it's dark out, humans sleep in rooms together, two to a bed.
When they dream, it's like they're reading books about themselves. The stories they experience have color, even though their eyes are closed.
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“A Martian Sends a Postcard Home” Themes
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The Power of Perspective
As the poem’s title reveals, Raine’s speaker is a Martian writing a letter home (that is, back to Mars) about what they have witnessed on Earth. By describing Earth from a Martian’s perspective, Raine makes human activity seem strange and alien. To this Martian speaker, even the most mundane parts of modern life—from answering the phone to going to the bathroom—seem weird or downright inexplicable. At the same time, the Martian’s surprising, imaginative metaphors for rain, books, dreaming, and other everyday phenomena might encourage a deeper appreciation of things that people take for granted. In this way, the poem speaks to the power of perspective, demonstrating how seeing the world through fresh, unfamiliar eyes can cast life in a new light.
Throughout the poem, the Martian describes the human world in a way that makes everyday life seem odd and unfamiliar. For example, the Martian compares books to birds and a Model T to a “room with a lock inside,” in which turning the key makes the world passing by become a movie. And, presumably in reference to wristwatches and clocks, the Martian says that “time is tied to the wrist” or “kept in a box.”
It’s not just human-made objects that seem strange to the speaker either, but the Earth itself. Rain, for example, is something that makes “colours darker” (i.e., by getting them wet), while mist looks like the sky settling onto the ground to “rest.” The speaker seems especially confused by human bodily functions, describing crying as the eyes “melt[ing]” and calling the bathroom as a “punishment room” where adults “suffer the noises alone.”
All the Martian's descriptions are funny and strange, yet each also has some element of truth. Readers can recognize what the Martian is talking about, even if they would never describe these things in the same way. In defamiliarizing the world, then, the Martian might prompt readers to reevaluate modern life—to see everyday objects and events a little differently.
The speaker’s description of watches and clocks, for instance, might make readers wonder why humans are so beholden to, or think that they can contain and control, time. Likewise, the speaker’s description of a cellphone as a “haunted apparatus,” which “snores,” “cries,” and wakes up when tickled, makes humans’ relationships to our phones seem even more absurd, as though these devices were babies or pets. And when the speaker notes that “Only the young are allowed to suffer openly,” readers might wonder why human culture pushes adults to suffer in silence.
Raine’s poem isn’t necessarily meant to criticize modern society. Rather, it shows how a shift in perspective can offer new insight into, and perhaps an appreciation of, even the most mundane parts of life. To that end, many of the Martian’s descriptions are quite beautiful and profound: rain is the earth being transformed into “television”; the world viewed through car mirrors is a “film”; and dreams are colorful books about people’s own lives.
At the same time, the Martian hints at the importance of approaching other cultures with an open mind. What seems normal to one society (in this case, Western human civilization) might seem totally weird to another (visitors from Mars). Similar contrasts in perspective can apply across human societies; the difference between human and Martian is just an extreme example.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-34
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “A Martian Sends a Postcard Home”
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Lines 1-2
Caxtons are mechanical ...
... their markings –The very first word of the poem reveals that this speaker is unusual. The Martian calls books "Caxtons," referring to William Caxton, the English merchant, diplomat, and writer who introduced the printing press to England in 1476. Without that background knowledge, however, the reader might not realize right away that the speaker is talking about books, because the metonymy of "Caxtons" for "books" is unusual and rather vague.
The metaphor that follows compares books to "mechanical birds"—the word "mechanical" alluding again to the printing press—whose pages resemble "many wings." From this description, it becomes clear that the speaker has virtually no familiarity with human civilization, let alone with inventions as old as books. The speaker can merely observe the shape of books and notice that they have "markings"—words or pictures, presumably—that elicit various reactions. Some markings cause humans to "treasure" certain books, the speaker notes, while others cause humans to cry or laugh.
From the very first stanza, then, it's obvious that the speaker doesn't come from Earth. The Martian's tone is blunt; even if they seem to speak in metaphor, they don't seem interested in rhetorical or poetic flourishes, but rather in sharing information. After all, they jump right into these observations about "Caxtons," offering no context beyond the poem's title. Presumably, this first description and everything that follows are the speaker's attempt to report on the human world to Martian readers. However, the speaker's strange word choices turn the poem into a kind of puzzle.
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Lines 3-4
they cause the ...
... shriek without pain. -
Lines 5-6
I have never ...
... on the hand. -
Lines 7-10
Mist is when ...
... under tissue paper. -
Lines 11-12
Rain is when ...
... making colours darker. -
Lines 13-16
Model T is ...
... for anything missed. -
Lines 17-18
But time is ...
... ticking with impatience. -
Lines 19-24
In homes, a ...
... with a finger. -
Lines 25-26
Only the young ...
... openly. -
Lines 26-30
Adults go to ...
... a different smell. -
Lines 31-34
At night, when ...
... their eyelids shut.
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“A Martian Sends a Postcard Home” Symbols
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Color
The speaker repeatedly refers to color when describing life on Earth. Though the speaker never says so explicitly, they seem to associate color with life: people seem most alive when they're moving through a colorful world, or when they "read" stories (i.e., dream) about themselves in color.
When it rains, the Martian notes that the rain makes "colours darker," because objects look darker when wet. But in keeping with the color symbolism throughout the poem, this darkening of colors might also signal life itself becoming drearier or duller in the rain. And "At night," the Martian writes, "all the colours die," signalling a rest from daily life. That humans dream "in colour," meanwhile, suggests the vivacity of those dreams.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 12: “It has the property of making colours darker.”
- Line 31: “At night, when all the colours die,”
- Lines 33-34: “read about themselves – / in colour, with their eyelids shut.”
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“A Martian Sends a Postcard Home” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Metonymy
Part of the puzzle of this poem comes from the speaker's use of metonymy to refer to everyday things. Metonymy is a way of referring to something by naming something closely associated with it.
The very first word of the poem is "Caxtons," by which the Martian means "books." The Martian uses this term because William Caxton, a 15th-century merchant, diplomat, and writer, introduced the printing press to England and became the first English retailer to sell printed books. So, in a sense, Caxton invented the printed book, and for some unexplained reason, the Martian identifies all books with Caxton's name. Combined with the Martian's description of these "mechanical birds" and their "markings," the term "Caxtons" is enough to identify these objects as books.
Similarly, the Martian uses metonymy when describing cars, opening line 13 with the words "Model T." The Model T was the famous Ford automobile, first produced in 1908, that made car travel affordable for middle-class Americans.
Most readers probably know that the Model T is a type of car, so the Martian's use of metonymy here isn't too puzzling. What's strange, however, is the fact that the Martian knows about the Model T and William Caxton. Where does the Martian get such deep knowledge of human history? Yet the Martian's terminology points also to their unfamiliarity with human life, since no one actually calls books "Caxtons" or cars "Model T." Ultimately, it seems this Martian's knowledge of Earth derives much more from background research than everyday experience!
Where metonymy appears in the poem:- Line 1: “Caxtons are mechanical birds”
- Line 13: “Model T is a room with the lock inside”
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Metaphor
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Simile
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Anthropomorphism
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Caesura
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Enjambment
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Consonance
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Sibilance
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Diacope
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Alliteration
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"A Martian Sends a Postcard Home" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Caxtons
- Perch
- Soft machine
- Bookish
- Engravings
- Model T
- Apparatus
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(Location in poem: Line 1: “Caxtons are mechanical birds with many wings”)
William Caxton is credited with introducing the printing press to England in 1476. Born around 1422, Caxton was a successful English merchant, diplomat, writer, printer, and bookseller. Here, the Martian uses Caxton's name to refer to books.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “A Martian Sends a Postcard Home”
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Form
Raine divides the poem into 17 couplets, or stanzas of two lines each. In general, the lines are of similar length, though some (e.g., line 12: "It has the property of making colours darker.") are substantially longer than others (e.g., line 32: "they hide in pairs").
The speaker writes in complete, fully punctuated sentences. Many of these sentences correspond to one stanza, as in lines 19-20 ("In homes [...] when you pick it up.") or to two stanzas that work as a pair, as in lines 1-4 ("Caxtons are mechanical birds [...] shriek without pain."). In other cases, a single sentence can stretch across multiple lines and stanzas, seemingly at random, as in lines 21-23 ("If the ghost cries [...] they wake it u").
Thus, not all of these couplets function as a unit, especially because Raine doesn't use rhyme or regular meter. However, the stanza breaks do generally help separate ideas and observations throughout the poem.
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Meter
Raine doesn't use any regular meter in "A Martian Sends a Postcard Home," which is a free verse poem. The lines vary in rhythm and length, even if many lines are generally around 10 syllables.
The lack of meter directs attention away from the formal qualities of the poem and toward the actual content of the Martian's observations. In other words, the Martian seems more interested in recording "informative" notes about life on Earth than in writing beautiful, flowing verses. As a result, readers focus on the Martian's odd word choices and descriptions rather than the sound of the poem. Plus, the lack of a fixed meter makes the poem's rhythm irregular, even choppy, contributing to the speaker's quirky tone.
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Rhyme Scheme
Raine doesn't use a rhyme scheme in "A Martian Sends a Postcard Home." In fact, rhyme is used only very sparingly in the poem. In the first stanza, the end rhyme of "wings" and "markings" seems almost accidental, since there are no other instances of end rhyme in the poem. Similarly, the internal rhyme of "key" and "free" in line 14 might make the Martian's verse flow more smoothly, but such an isolated instance of rhyme can have only a subtle effect. Overall, rhyme plays a negligible role in the poem, perhaps suggesting that the Martian aims to write verses that feel more objective and informative than lyrical and "poetic."
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“A Martian Sends a Postcard Home” Speaker
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As the title suggests, the speaker of this poem is an alien visitor from Mars. Supposedly, this poem is what the Martian writes home (i.e., back to Mars) in a postcard describing life on Earth.
The fact that the speaker is a Martian provides the main conceit of the poem, as the speaker observes everyday objects, weather, and human activities from a completely alien perspective. In describing mundane things from a Martian point of view, the speaker gives readers a new way to view our everyday lives and surroundings.
Even though the speaker's Martian identity is crucial to the poem, the Martian's actual voice is rather muted. In other words, the Martian doesn't reveal much about themselves; they never announce their name, their gender, or anything about their physical appearance. The Martian uses the word "I" only once, in line 5, indicating that they have indeed spent time on Earth and observed the human world.
In describing life on Earth, the Martian seems to record their thoughts objectively, almost as if taking scientific notes for a field study about humans. This objective tone adds to the subtle humor of the poem, while also making the Martian sort of endearing. For example, it's funny that the Martian views bathrooms as "a punishment room," and it's sweet to hear an alien describe dreams as books that humans read while sleeping at night, "in pairs," especially because the Martian makes these observations in complete seriousness.
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“A Martian Sends a Postcard Home” Setting
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The setting of this poem is, naturally, the Earth, as the Martian is clearly writing back to Mars about human life and the environment here on our planet. Otherwise, there are few concrete clues as to where or when the Martian is visiting Earth. The poem could take place anytime after the invention of the Model T—so after 1908—and it probably takes place after the widespread adoption of the telephone, which is most likely what the Martian means by "haunted apparatus." Additionally, the Martian seems familiar with Western culture, in particular: Caxton was English, and the Model T was invented in America. Given these references, it seems probable that the Martian landed somewhere in the Western Hemisphere when he came to explore Earth, and that the poem takes place around the time of its publication in the late 1970s.
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Literary and Historical Context of “A Martian Sends a Postcard Home”
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Literary Context
First published in the New Statesman magazine in 1977, "A Martian Sends a Postcard Home" is the most famous example of Martian poetry, a minor movement in British poetry spanning the 1970s and '80s. In this movement, writers describe everyday things and human life from an alien's (or alien-like) perspective. In fact, the movement got its name from Raine's poem, which uses the Martian's point of view to turn descriptions of familiar objects into puzzles.
Craig Raine's works include poetry collections titled The Onion, Memory; A Martian Sends a Postcard Home; and, most recently, How Snow Falls. Other than Raine, the most prominent writer of Martian poetry is Christopher Reid, whose contributions to the Martian movement include the poetry collections Arcadia and Pea Soup. Another proponent of Martian poetry is Martin Amis, whose descriptions of everyday objects in the book Other People: A Mystery Story were allegedly influenced by Raine's work.
Historical Context
While the poem doesn't occur in any specific place or time, Raine does seem to situate the Martian's visit in the contemporary Western world. The Martian is clearly interested in human inventions; the poem begins with a reference to William Caxton, the English inventor of the printing press, and devotes multiple stanzas to a curious description of phones. The Martian also makes references to television, timepieces, and indoor plumbing. As such, Raine's poem perhaps reflects a sense of bemusement or amazement at technological progress in the 20th century—the century when Western life modernized rapidly, from the invention of the Model T car to the introduction of phones and TVs into average households.
Though the Martian's confusion about modern inventions, and even much older inventions like books, is an obviously exaggerated version of how people might view new technologies, the Martian does potentially capture some of the surprise or awe that humans might have felt as modern technology progressed.
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More “A Martian Sends a Postcard Home” Resources
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External Resources
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The Poem Read Aloud — Listen to a reading of "A Martian Sends a Postcard Home."
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Martian Poetry — Read more context on Martian poetry, the movement spawned by Raine's poem.
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History of the Model T — Get caught up on the history of the Model T, the car that Raine's speaker identifies with all automobiles.
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Biography of Craig Raine — Learn more about the author's background and other works.
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Biography of William Caxton — Learn about William Caxton, the first English printer, whose name gives the Martian a curious new word for books.
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