Planetarium by Adrienne Rich

Planetarium

by Adrienne Rich

Thinking of Caroline Herschel (1750—1848)

astronomer, sister of William; and others.

A woman in the shape of a monster   

a monster in the shape of a woman   

the skies are full of them

a woman      "in the snow

among the Clocks and instruments   

or measuring the ground with poles"

in her 98 years to discover   

8 comets

she whom the moon ruled   

like us

levitating into the night sky   

riding the polished lenses

Galaxies of women, there

doing penance for impetuousness   

ribs chilled   

in those spaces    of the mind

An eye,

          "virile, precise and absolutely certain"

          from the mad webs of Uranusborg

                                                            encountering the NOVA   

every impulse of light exploding

from the core

as life flies out of us

             Tycho whispering at last

             "Let me not seem to have lived in vain"

What we see, we see   

and seeing is changing

the light that shrivels a mountain   

and leaves a man alive

Heartbeat of the pulsar

heart sweating through my body

The radio impulse   

pouring in from Taurus

         I am bombarded yet         I stand

I have been standing all my life in the   

direct path of a battery of signals

the most accurately transmitted most   

untranslatable language in the universe

I am a galactic cloud so deep      so invo-

luted that a light wave could take 15   

years to travel through me       And has   

taken      I am an instrument in the shape   

of a woman trying to translate pulsations   

into images    for the relief of the body   

and the reconstruction of the mind.

This poem by icon Adrienne Rich is not just a favorite poem of mine, but also an important piece of feminist literature. Written in the early 1970s, it is part of time when discovering and re-discovering the forgotten and lost women in history was a focus of women's liberation (that is what we called it back then).

But this is also a wonderful poem, one of--in my opinion--Rich's best. If there were nothing else to commend this poem, that first line would be enough. And then she immediately flips it, which leads to all of those mythological women, ancient legends turned into constellations.

The third stanza tells us a little more about astronomer Caroline Herschel--she discovered 8 coments during her lifetime. The next stanza pulls together Herschel, Rich, and all women, before then spending the rest of the poem going back and forth between celestial beings, the astronomer, the speaker/poet, and all women.

It is not just mythical women who must do "penance for impetuousness" and it is not just actual women who has life fly out of us.

Tycho is Tycho Brahe, an astronomer known for many things. Here is a short article about him and his interesting life: https://www.space.com/19623-tycho-brahe-biography.html.

"Seeing is changing" is both simple and so meaningful. When we see the women throughout history--scientists, writers, artists, politicians, warriors, etc.--we are forced to change our minds about women's ability and their contributions. The same goes for any group that people in power erase (or never elevate in the first place). This seems especially important right now, when we in the United States are shockingly existing with an administration trying to erase women, people of color, and those of the LGBTQA+ community.

There are 3 stanzas focusing on scientific discoveries/inventions, and the speaker sneaks in there in the phrase "my body."

The short stanzas give way at the end to a much longer stanza that contains some spaces between words and ideas. This changes both the pace and the tone of the poem, and--along with the line immediately preceding this stanza--focuses on the I.

First the speaker tells us about herself in relation to scientific discoveries:

I have been standing all my life

I am a galactic cloud so deep 

The poem ends by melding the speaker with the mythical, the scientific with seeing, the seeing with creating, and the body with changing thought, pulling together every thread of this poem.

   I am an instrument in the shape   

of a woman trying to translate pulsations   

into images    for the relief of the body   

and the reconstruction of the mind

I hope this poem inspires you to learn more about Caroline Herschel, other female scientists, or other women in history whose names and accomplishments should be better known.