Unicorn Poetry: A Manifesto

Yesterday, I posted a poem entitled "The Mind Has its Seasons" (link here), which I consider the first official Unicorn Poem. I am the first of the Unicorn poets, but surely it cannot be very long before other versifiers join the movement.

Some of my previous poems are doubtless proto-Unicorn poetry. I will let the literary historians attend to that.

The Unicorn Poets are ready to take their place beside the Metaphysical Poets, the Pylon Poets, the Georgian Poets, the Cavalier Poets, the Movement, and every other literary current which winds through the annals of literature.

My blog post "The Dark Side of the Moon" is to be considered a seminal text for the Unicorn School. This passage, for instance, might explain the atmosphere in which Unicorns choose to dwell:

Another reason Rossetti's poetry is interesting to me is because of its dream-like, symbolic, otherworldy atmosphere. At the moment, I'm completely besotted with this kind of thing. I'm in the mood for dreams, visions, archetypes, legends, myths, folklore, and everything that sustains the less rational, more poetic side of our nature. I want to read about all these subjects right now!

Amen.

If was forced to encapsulate the attitude of the Unicorn School in three words, I would say: "Naive, not ironic."

Christina Rossetti, much revered by Unicorn poets

These are the requirements of Unicorn Poetry:

1) Unicorn poetry must be upon exalted subjects. A Unicorn poet has no interest in writing about a man staggering home from the pub and throwing up in the gutter. The unicorn is an appropriate symbol of all that is lofty, refined, romantic. Unicorn poets deal with such themes.

2) Unicorn poetry prefers the vague to the concrete, the timeless to the historical, the universal to the particular, and especially avoids proper names. Imagery used in unicorn poetry should be, preferably, archetypal imagery; mountains, towers, waves, jewels, and so forth. Combine harvesters, bunsen burners and chihuahas should not intrude upon Unicorn poetry.

3) Unicorn poetry favours slack, loose metres and rhyming schemes. Free verse is OK, as long as doesn't grate upon the ear. Intricate and complex rhyming patterns are out. Repetition is encouraged, especially repetition that adds an incatatory quality.

The unicorn poet aims to awaken a trance-like mood in the reader. Formats which are jarring or brisk are not in the right spirit.

4) Unicorn poetry is adolescent. The Unicorn poet seeks to attain the outlook of a dreamy fifteen-year-old writing yearning poetry in her bedroom-- or perhaps a housewife writing equally yearning poetry between the school run and the ironing. A morbid self-awareness is to be shunned, and irony is to be altogether abhorred. The Unicorn poet is not at all afraid to be corny.

5) Unicorn poetry prefers the inner world to the outer world; to the Unicorn poet, the outer world is an expression of the inner world. Dreams, visions, never-never lands, and allegorical landscapes are an appropriate setting for unicorn poetry.

6) There is no place for humour in Unicorn poetry.

Some may say: "Why, you are simply describing Pre-Raphaelite poetry!". It's certainly true that Unicorn poetry is similar to Pre-Raphaelite poetry in some ways, but there are subtle differences. Unicorn poetry does not concentrate upon the medieval, eschewing historical particularity as far as possible; nor does it admit the grotesque. There are no goblins in Unicorn poetry. There may be demons and dragons, but no goblins. Another difference is that Unicorn poetry encourages a certain callowness, whereas Pre-Raphaelite poetry was psychologically and emotionally sophisticated and often breathed a certain ennui. If you are a man or a woman of the world, and you wish to write Unicorn poetry, you must try to jettison your worldly wisdom.

So what are you waiting for? Seek out some lonely spot-- ponder an unrequited love-- meditate upon a lonely well-- light a candle, or perhaps a stick of incense-- and join this exciting (and yet sedate) new school of poetry! The world needs Unicorn poets!