THE CONFLAGRATION OF A FLIER
By:
June 10, 2025
A series dedicated to poems, published c. 1900–1935, the Radium Age sf-adjacent themes of which include: dystopia and utopia, far-out mathematics and the fourth dimension, Afro-futurism, catastrophe, future war, new technologies, scientific breakthrough, dehumanization, cosmic awe, disenchantment and unseen forces, unknowable aliens and singularity. Research and selection by Joshua Glenn; thematic index here.
(Fragments)
1
On both hemispheres of the earth
ears filled with grain of coming events
are singing
Washed with rain of blood from heavy
clouds….
Is it so, is it so??
Wireless carries the grain around the world
of which man will have bread to eat
when the electric clock tells the time….
Is it so, is it so??
In the hieroglyphs of millions of hands
wrung, raised, crossed
you can read signs of the future
Is it so, is it so??
Listen to the pulse of your blood
listen to your heart
how fast a tiny engine works there.
2
In the beat, in the rhythm, in the noise of
battle
electricity is roaring and churning
events make events
events make epochs
they raise their heads awfully glorious
bristling with bayonets
ensnared with a swarm of epidemics
enveloped with a smoky turban of fires
The heart is filled with fear and joy.
4
Flier! Look out…. Ah, Ah!!!
White day…. I am dyi… Explo…
The wing caught fire.
The wind blew sparks into your dry hair,
And sowed fear of all fears of the world
into your staring blind eyes
You are in flames, flier
Brother of space and of the world.
5
Deadly fear chokes you, when on earth in
daylight
a stearin candle is burning.
Ring the bell of triumph, when high above
the earth you see —
in daylight, as a stearin candle, burning — a
hero.
— 1914. Also translated as “Pilot’s Ignition.” Found in Zbigniew Folejewski’s Futurism and its place in the development of modern poetry: a comparative study and anthology.
RADIUM AGE PROTO-SF POETRY: Stephen Spender’s THE PYLONS | George Sterling’s THE TESTIMONY OF THE SUNS | Archibald MacLeish’s EINSTEIN | Thomas Thornely’s THE ATOM | C.S. Lewis’s DYMER | Stephen Vincent Benét’s METROPOLITAN NIGHTMARE | Robert Frost’s FIRE AND ICE | Aldous Huxley’s FIFTH PHILOSOPHER’S SONG | Sara Teasdale’s “THERE WILL COME SOFT RAINS” | Edith Södergran’s ON FOOT I HAD TO… | Robert Graves’s WELSH INCIDENT | Nancy Cunard’s ZEPPELINS | D.H. Lawrence’s WELLSIAN FUTURES | & many more.