INTROSPECTION
By:
December 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.
Whence have we come?
We know but that
God made man,
And that Africa is a land of jungles —
We know too
That nights have been dark
And like a million stars
We have grinned
Thru them all.
It is strange
That we should know Love,
We who have gasped for breath
Amid poisonous fumes of hate
And have sucked
The bitter breast of scorn;
It is strange
That we too
Should know the joy
Of kisses.
Our mouths have sung
The Lord’s song
In a strange land,
And our harp strings have vibrated
With new tunes.
We must find a new prayer
To pray,
The same words have grown dull
To the ears of God:
We must find a new prayer
For the God of the sun
And steel girders,
We must build stronger altars
To the God of skyscrapers.
How quickly this dream has ended!
Palm trees are waving
On the banks of the Congo
Where grass huts still hide dusky bodies
From the sun;
And there are voices
Crying aloud in the wilderness —
There are voices in the jungles
That echo thru the night
As ours did
Long ago.
— Published in The Crisis, March 1928
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.