Describe me vividly…

Imagine you’re an alien…

You visited Earth for the 1 time.
st
You visited Earth for the 1 time.
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A Martian Sends a Postcard Home
Craig Raine
Some Difficult Words
“Hilda borrowed a caxton from the library. She needed it as
a reference for her research.”

What is a caxton?

William Caxton the first man to print books in English

Caxton
Harold shrieked with pain when his finger toes hit
the edge of the wall. His high-pitched cry woke his
sister up.

-Shriek

- Is a loud sharp, high-pitched cry people make especially

when in pain or scared.

- SHRIEK
The experts are still trying to figure out the meaning of the engravings
in the wall. These inscriptions were probably written thousands of
years ago.”

What is engravings?

These are designs on hard surface such as wood or metal like

drawings in the cave walls during pre-historic time.
Juan tried to work with the apparatus for his project. The
complicated instrument was really hard to work with.

What is an apparatus?

A machine, instrument or tool.

Apparatus
The mother tried to soothe the crying baby with her lullaby. She
tried to make the baby feel better.

What is the meaning of the word soothe.

Use it in a sentence.
 Raine is well known as one of
the exponents of ‘Martian’
poetry.

Through unusual, ingenious and

sometimes humorous visual
images, he attempts to make
readers look at the familiar in
fresh, illuminating ways.

Craig Raine
Pick your Blank Postcard.
You are grouped according to color.
Read each line silently.
Read each line aloud.
A Martian Sends Post Card Home

Caxtons are mechanical birds with many wings

and some are treasured for their markings.
they cause the eyes to melt
or the body to shriek with pain
I have never seen one fly, but
sometimes they perch on the hand.
A Martian Sends Post Card Home

Mist is when the sky is tired of flight

and rests its soft machine on the ground:
then the world is dim and bookish
like engravings under tissue paper.
A Martian Sends Post Card Home
i o n ?
tel evis
to a
ra in
the
p re
a
com
a ut hor
k the
t hi n
o you
y d
Wh

Rain is when the earth is television

it has the property of making colours darker.
A Martian Sends Post Card Home

other details

Model T is a room with the lock inside ...

a lock is turned to free the world
for movement, so quick there is a film
to watch for anything missed.
A Martian Sends Post Card Home

But time is tied to the wrist

or kept in a box ticking with impatience.
A Martian Sends Post Card Home
A Martian Sends Post Card Home

In homes a haunted apparatus sleeps,

that snores when you pick it up.
If the ghost cries, they carry it
to their lips and soothe it to sleep
with sounds. A yet they wake it up
deliberately, by tickling with a finger.
A Martian Sends Post Card Home

Only the young are allowed to suffer

openly. Adults go to a punishment room
with water, but nothing to eat.
They lock the door and suffer the noises
alone. No one is exempt
and everyone’s pain has a different smell.
A Martian Sends Post Card Home

At night, when all the colours die,

they hide in pairs
and read about themselves ...
in colour, with their eyelids shut.
w did the Martian describe all the things mentioned in the po
Photo Pair
 Are you ready to be a Martian?

1. Pick up an object.
2. Describe it the Martian Way.
3. Write this in the blank post card.
Who wants to be the first Martian?
Pick out a line/lines in the poem and identify
what figure of speech is being utilized.