Planetarium

Adrienne Rich’s “Planetarium” is written in free verse. There are 45 lines broken up into 17 stanzas. Line lengths and stanza lengths vary. Rich also uses heavily indented lines and adds spaces in the middle of lines.

Before the first stanza, Rich includes an epigraph, or dedication, to Caroline Herschel and others. The epigraph highlights the fact that Herschel was an astronomer in the late 1700s and early 1800s, as well as the sister of another German astronomer, William. This clearly sets up one theme of the poem—investigating the life of a woman working in science.

The first stanza compares two different shapes: the “shape of a monster” (Line 1) and the “shape of a woman” (Line 2). This comparison specifically presents the idea that women are “in” (Line 1) the shape of monsters and vice versa. In other words, women’s bodies—their shape—have been portrayed as monstrous. This occurs in literature, religion, and myth. The third line places the shapes in “the skies” (Line 3), indicating that the women/monsters are constellations. Constellations are often taken from myths and other stories.

The second stanza turns to Herschel. Line 4 begins with “A woman” and then has extra spaces before the following words “in the snow” (Line 4). The added white space reflects the whiteness of the snow being described. Herschel works with “instruments” (Line 5), such as “Clocks” (Line 5). The capitalization of Clocks highlights the idea of time by designating a time-keeper as a proper noun. Herschel is also described as “measuring” (Line 6) the earth’s poles. The diction of instruments and measurements shows the nature of Herschel’s scientific work. Both the first and second stanza have three lines, which structurally aligns Herschel with the women/monsters in constellations.

Time returns in the third stanza as Herschel’s time on earth—her age. Herschel lived for “98 years” (Line 7) and, in this time, discovered “8 comets” (Line 7). Time is also connected with numerical figures, echoing the scientific language of the previous stanza. However, the pattern of three-line stanzas is broken in this two-line stanza.

In the fourth stanza, which contains four lines, the motif of time continues with the moon. Herschel is “ruled” by the “moon” (Line 9). This connects her life to a lunar calendar marking the passage of time, as well as the phases of the moon connecting to the female menstrual cycle. Rich introduces a first-person plural in the following line: Herschel is “like us” (Line 10), indicating other women are ruled by time in the same way.

The fourth stanza continues with the image of Herschel “levitating into the night sky” (Line 11). Rather than this being a magical or mystical act, it is a metaphor, which the following line develops. Herschel rides “the polished lenses” (Line 12). In other words, the metaphor of levitation describes Herschel looking through the lenses of a telescope.

The fifth stanza, which has four lines like the previous stanza, describes the sky. It is full of “Galaxies of women” (Line 13) who are depicted in constellations. The stories that the stars represent include women who were punished for their “impetuousness” (Line 14). Rich alludes to Eve’s story in Genesis with the phrase “ribs chilled” (Line 15). The space of the “night sky” (Line 11) is also “spaces of the mind” (Line 16). The white space intentionally included after the word “spaces” (Line 16) visually reinforces the concept of space.

Two words—“An eye” (Line 17)—are given their own stanza. The singular eye can be read as a reference to Herschel losing vision in her left eye from typhus at 10 years old. The eye is a sensory organ related to both seeing the sky and internal visualization (the mind’s eye), which are linked in the previous stanza. Also, the eye structurally serves as a bridge between another subject of the poem, who is referenced in the following stanza.

The seventh stanza is a reference to Tycho Brahe. As with the description of Herschel, there is a small section that Rich puts in quotes. This causes the descriptions to resemble encyclopedia entries, but the words contained in these two quotes (Stanza 2 as well as Stanza 7) are Rich’s words. The adjectives that describe Brahe include “virile” and “precise,” as well as “absolutely certain” (Line 18). This diction is masculine and mathematical, but it reflects the acts of measurement that are attributed to Herschel. Precision and instruments are both part of the scientific process of astronomy. The identity of Brahe is revealed in Line 19 with “Uranusborg,” the name of his Danish astronomical observatory.

The eighth stanza is one line, like the sixth. It is the most heavily indented line of the page, with the seventh stanza indented enough to fall between the left-aligned sixth stanza and the nearly right-aligned eighth stanza. Here, a “NOVA” (Line 20) is placed on the far right-hand side of the page, mirroring “An eye” (Line 17) on the far left. The astronomer is placed between the eye and the celestial event in the middle of the page.

In the ninth stanza, which is also one line, Rich describes the nova. It is an explosion of “every impulse of light” (Line 21). This phrase introduces words that will be repeated in following stanzas.

The 10th stanza, which contains two lines, develops the description of the nova. The explosion of light comes “from the core” (Line 22), which blurs the distinction between women’s bodies and celestial bodies. This blurring is developed in the following line, which returns to the plural first-person “us” (Line 23) from Line 10. “Life” (Line 23) is what “flies” (Line 23) out of both the nova and women.

The 11th stanza returns to Tycho Brahe. It is indented the same amount as the previous stanza about him, and contains the same number of lines (two) as the previous stanza about him (the seventh stanza). Rich quotes Brahe here, citing him as saying: “Let me not seem to have lived in vain” (Line 25). Brahe desires to be seen as living a meaningful life.

In the 12th stanza, the plural first-person returns as “we” (Line 26), which includes women specifically. In the two lines (Lines 26 and 27) of this stanza, “we” is repeated twice and “see”/”seeing” is repeated three times. This emphasizes the visual as well as those who participate in the visual act. The act of seeing is defined as “changing” (Line 27).

The 13th stanza, which also has two lines, repeats the word “light” (Line 28) from the ninth stanza. This connects the light that has exploded previously in the poem with the light that now “shrivels a mountain” (Line 28). This destructive power is paired with a merciful power. The same light can leave “a man alive” (Line 29). These two sides develop the duality of the poem—the celestial and the human.

In the 14th stanza, another two-line stanza, the imagery becomes tactile, or kinetic. Rich focuses on the “Heartbeat of the pulsar” (Line 30). The intermittent pulses of radiation from a celestial body become a “heart” that is “sweating through” (Line 31) the body of a now singular first-person speaker. The “we” from the 12th stanza is replaced with the singular possessive pronoun “my” (Line 31). The singular speaker is physically connected to the celestial body.

The 15th stanza is the final two-line stanza in a series of six two-line stanzas. Rich returns to the word impulse from Stanza 9, but she develops the image as a “radio impulse” (Line 32). Radio is another part of the impulse of light—there is both light and sound. The impulse comes from the part of the night sky designated by the constellation “Taurus” (Line 33).

The 16th stanza is one line, indented like Stanzas 11 and 7. However, instead of discussing a historical figure, like Brahe, this stanza focuses on the first-person singular “I” (Line 34). The “I” is related to the possessive pronoun “my” (Line 31) in Stanza 14. This speaker is “bombarded” (Line 34) but is still standing. This indicates the nature of radio and light impulses—they can hit without causing impact or damage.

The final stanza, 17, is the longest stanza, with 11 lines. First, the idea of being hit with light and radio waves—”a battery of signals” (Line 36) is developed. Time returns as the first-person speaker explains that she has been “standing” (Line 35) in the path of these signals for her entire life. Next, the signals are described. They are very “accurately transmitted” (Line 37), which echoes the language of precision and certainty attributed to Brahe in Stanza 7. Despite this accuracy, the signals are an “untranslatable language” (Line 38). The math of light and radio differs from words in poetry.

The 17th stanza continues with the first-person “I” identifying herself. She is a “galactic cloud” (Line 39) whose depth and complexity would cause waves of light to take “15 / years” (Lines 40-41) to travel through her. After the description of her immense size, the idea of time returns. She asserts this amount of time has occurred repeatedly, that multiple waves have traveled through her. There are extra spaces before the phrase “And has / taken” (Lines 41-42), visually reinforcing the huge size, as well as the extensive amount of time that she has existed as a cloud.

The last four lines of the poem redefine the first-person speaker. She is an “instrument in the shape / of a woman” (Lines 42). This recalls the “shape” that appears in Lines 1 and 2, as well as the “instruments” in Line 5. The function of the woman-shaped instrument is to translate “pulsations / into images” (Lines 43-44). While this might seem like an impossible task, given the “untranslatable” (Line 38) nature of the signals, she does it because it brings physical and mental solace and repair.