Fri Sep 20 09:14:36 UTC 2024: ## A Vision of Post-Apocalyptic Horror: Osbert Sitwell’s “Round the Great Ruins Crawl…”
**LONDON, UK** – A newly discovered poem by Osbert Sitwell, published in 1917, offers a chilling glimpse into the anxieties of the Radium Age, a period marked by burgeoning scientific advancements and anxieties about their potential consequences.
Titled “Round the Great Ruins Crawl…”, the poem depicts a post-apocalyptic world consumed by decay and monstrous creatures. The landscape is described as a wasteland of “green ruins lichenous and scarred by moss,” a stark reminder of a lost civilization.
The poem’s imagery is both grotesque and evocative, focusing on the unsettling presence of giant, armored creatures that move with “flap and clatter” through the polluted air. The narrative suggests a struggle for survival, with a predatory creature hunting the monstrous beings, leaving behind “horrid noises, cries of pain.”
This evocative portrayal of a ravaged world captures the anxieties of the Radium Age, a time when scientific advancements like radioactivity seemed both promising and potentially dangerous. The poem’s themes of decay, destruction, and monstrous creatures reflect a deep-seated fear of technological advancement and its potential to lead to human annihilation.
This newly discovered poem, part of the “Wheels” anthology by the Sitwell siblings, serves as a valuable insight into the anxieties of a rapidly changing world. It stands alongside other works of proto-science fiction from the era, including poems by Stephen Spender, George Sterling, and C.S. Lewis, that explore the implications of technological progress.
First Piper 