Ok, y’all, I have thoughts on Martin’s poetry. Buckle up. This is kind of an analysis, kind of a rant, kind of just some thoughts nobody asked for.
(Spoilers through MAG 170. Plot-relevant spoilers for season 4 mainly. The only plot-relevant spoilers for season 5 are specifically about MAG 170, not the season as a whole)
Martin’s poetry is not “great”. And this is actually really interesting and important. He’s not writing it for you, he’s not writing it for Jon. He’s writing it for himself. Because he wants to, because that is something fun, because he finds things like street lights to be pretty and wants to write that down. It doesn’t have to be more than that. It is a hobby. An artistic hobby. There is a big narrative in the world that, in order to be allowed to be an artist, you have to be good. In order to do art, you had better be good at it. Beyond that, there is a sense that you have to be able to monetize it (ayy capitalism).
There is also an idea that, especially for poetry, you have to be barring your very soul in order to write it. Personally, I like writing poetry. But I very rarely write based on my personal experiences. I’ll write things like, oh what if there was a dude describing the woman coming to murder him? That’d be neat. It’s a fun way to play with words that are less limited structurally than prose.
“Nothing much really, just fragments, thoughts“ (MAG 170).
And, so, I like that Martin is allowed to have an artistic hobby that is just for his own enjoyment not others’ opinions, and he doesn’t need to be the best poet in order to be a poet.
He also, doesn’t show his poetry to anyone (that we know of). Jon reads it by looting through Martin’s trash without permission, and Martin implies in MAG 170 that he finds the idea of open mike nights cool but doesn’t do them. “Just for me, really, I think” (MAG 170). Because it is just his. And for a guy who’s very much a give-everything-up-for-other-people (at least through a lot of his arc), it is nice that he gets to have a hobby outside of anything.
He also mentions it as just a little escape from everything, a stress reliever. “Haven’t written anything like it since I was a teenager, – (small laugh) – but my new job’s a lot, and – I don’t know. Something about that place, it just – it makes me feel weird? But – the sort of weird you just have to get out somehow” (MAG 170). -- Edit: It is, I think, also worth noting that if he hasn’t written poetry since he was a teenager, he probably stopped after, you know, he had to drop out of school and support himself and his mother. --
Alright, now let’s talk about the Lonely.
In MAG 124, Jon asks how the poetry is going to which Martin replies that he hasn’t had time for it.
The Lonely is spooky depression more or less, and something common with depression is not really being able to work on artistic interests either because they don’t have the energy or it isn’t making them happy the way it used to or other reasons. (This is something I have experienced). So it makes sense (an is sad, can’t forget that) that Martin isn’t able to write poetry during season 4. This is exemplified in MAG 170 when he wants to recite one of his poem, but he cannot remember any. His mood lifts a bit when he mentions it, but then is brought back down because the Lonely takes that from him.
In season 5, where things still suck but at least his depression is a bit better (though it varies and I love writing-wise that it never just disappears when no longer plot relevant), he is not necessarily writing poetry, but he’s back into it a bit. There are some mentions of it, like Helen defining him as a “petulant poet” and Jon jokingly suggest he do a poem to prove himself to Basira. Because art is healing yo.
Side note, Jon’s opinions on it go from ‘wow Martin writes poetry in his free time what a useless ass’ to ‘I have now read and analyzed all of Martin’s poetry in a fit of paranoia’ to ‘hey poetry is something that makes Martin happy, I’ll ask him about it’ to ‘my boyfriend is a poet and will love him and snipe at him about it good-naturedly’. So that’s nice.
TL;DR - Martin’s poetry is not great, but it doesn’t have to be in order for it to be important. It is allowed to be a fun hobby and escape just for him. The fact that the character does an art thing and is not some kind of prodigy at it is actually pretty unique. Depression sucks and art is healing.
Also, to all you out there, you are allowed to do art. Do it because you enjoy it. Do it for yourself and no one else. It’s not ‘Oh I don’t do art. I can barely draw stick figures’, it is ‘Drawing stick figures is fun! I will continue to do that if it makes me happy!’
