One of Nobel Prize-winner Harry Martinsson's most famous works is a long Science Fiction poem called Aniara, first published in 1956. It's written in Swedish but must've been translated at some point.

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Oh, thank you for the recommendation, I have never heard of it. I've just googled, and yes it is available in translation. This review is very positive.

Henry Martinson accomplished what many would think impossible--a literate yet accessible epic science fiction poem that warrants close attention by those interested in either the outer reaches of SF writing or the inner reaches of poetry. What makes Aniara astounding is that the visionary aspects are fully formed in both camps... this is without a doubt a poem with a capital P, not a short story with line breaks. The cadences (rendered in a very able translation from the Swedish by Klass and Sjoberg) in themselves are intriguing.

sounds like a great find.

Edited at 2008-10-24 10:49 am (UTC)

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At least in Swedish it's really good and well worth reading.

It's also an annoying thing for those studying the history of SF in Sweden academically, since it's an early example of SF in the country, undeniably SF (with spaceships, FTL communication and stuff), as well as heavy-duty Literature™ (like, Nobel Prize winner, and Martinsson himself was always very proud of it and considered it one of his best works). It stands out like a lighthouse, so you can't ignore it, and it doesn't fit into the "normal" development of SF at all. Very annoying :-)

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Romance????? Isn't your inbox going to be flooded with examples?

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Good point - though could there be a distinction between love as a subject and romance as a genre? If so, I'm afraid I can't define that genre.

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For crime, suggest Macavity: The Mystery Cat

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The Doctor Who story The Horror of Fang Rock was based on - and the Doctor quotes - the Ballard of Flannan Isle.

The poem is on the web here:

http://www.potw.org/archive/potw230.html

and is sadly lacking in Rutans. Though I'm impressed that the webpage cites the DW ep in the notes.

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Oh, that's a good rec, thanks. My verdict is that the men were turned into massive cormorants.

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Oh my goodness, that's just dredged up a long-forgotten memory of reading and writing about that poem in primary school!

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I don't know if this is exactly what you're looking for, but Hawkwind's famous live album Space Ritual includes several performed poems: "Black Corridor" and "Sonic Attack" by Michael Moorcock, and "The Awakening", "Ten Seconds of Forever" and "Welcome to the Future" by Robert Calvert.

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Yes, that rings a bell. I think SF writers may be more likely to write some poetry than mainstream authors.

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There are loads more space/SF-based ones by Edwin Morgan, including a whole bunch called collectively Star Gate: science fiction poems and published in 1979. I think "A Home in Space" should be online here together with info about his SF poems in general - click on A Home in Space in the list.

Crime - Simon Armitage, Hitcher. Scar-y....

Edited at 2008-10-24 04:53 pm (UTC)

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There are many links to poems and other writing by John M. Ford in this eulogy thread on Making Light.

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