Planetarium

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1974

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

The History of Women in Science

A central theme of “Planetarium” is investigating the experience of being a woman working as a scientist, specifically an astronomer. Rich contrasts the historical figure of Caroline Herschel, who the poem’s epigraph (dedication) mentions with the historical figure of Tycho Brahe, who is named in Line 24. Facts about Herschel’s career, such as the number of comets she discovered—“8 comets” (Line 8)—can be contrasted with facts about Brahe, such as the name of his Danish astronomical observatory: “Uranusborg” (Line 19). Even before his name is included, Rich alludes to Brahe by including the name of his observatory. Readers are more likely to be familiar with Brahe than Herschel, so Rich includes her name before the poem and lists specific discoveries to help increase knowledge about her work.

Brahe’s own words are also included in the poem. Rich includes three sets of quotes in Stanzas 2, 7, and 11. Stanza 2 and Stanza 7 are about Herschel and Brahe, respectively, but neither includes a quote from an English source. Either Rich created the encyclopedia-like quotes herself, or she translated them from another language. In contrast to this, in Stanza 11, Rich includes Brahe’s famous quote “Let me not seem to have lived in vain” (Line 25), and she clearly cites him. This use of quotes develops the idea of how women’s work in science is far more obscured, or unseen, than the work of their male counterparts.

Furthermore, the descriptions of Brahe and Herschel in Rich’s encyclopedia-like quotes can be contrasted. Herschel is described as using “Clocks” (Line 5), a word that is capitalized in a way that resembles old conventions of writing, such as the English Romantics who would capitalize words like Clocks as a way to represent the force of Time and emphasize its power over humans. This poetic creation of a proper noun is in contrast to the scientific ideas of being “precise and absolutely certain” (Line 18) that are connected with Brahe. However, outside of these quotes, the precise facts about Herschel’s work, such as the number of comets, illustrate how she can be as empirical as the famous men in science.

Mythological Women and Modern Women

Another feminist reading of Rich’s poem is how the women in constellations can be compared with women in science and women working as poets. “Planetarium” begins by looking at the shapes of women and monsters: “A woman in the shape of a monster / a monster in the shape of a woman” (Lines 1-2). Women being characterized as monstrous occurs not only in the “skies” (Line 3) and myth, but also by sexist men on earth. Looking at how men historically named female constellations is a way of examining how they view the women in their lives.

Rich develops the theme about monstrous celestial women in the fifth stanza, after three stanzas about Caroline Herschel. The stanzas about women in constellations surround these stanzas about Herschel, placing the celestial women above and below her. Rich compares Herschel to the “Galaxies of women, there / doing penance for impetuousness / ribs chilled” (Lines 13-15). The rib references Genesis, in that Eve was made from Adam’s rib and caused them to be cast out of Eden by eating the apple from the Tree of Knowledge. Furthermore, “penance for impetuousness” (Line 14) references the esoteric figure of Lilith, Adam’s first wife, who was punished for refusing to lie below him. This is supported by the celestial women occupying the sky. Additionally, “galaxies of women” (Line 13) includes the Andromeda galaxy. In the 17th stanza, Rich’s first-person speaker identifies herself as a “galactic cloud” (Line 39), which again alludes to the myth of Andromeda. Andromeda, both a constellation and a galaxy, comes from the myth of a woman chained to a rock as a sacrifice to a sea monster.

This theme about the female shape is further developed at the end of the poem. In the last lines, the first-person speaker defines herself as “an instrument in the shape / of a woman” (Lines 42-43). This phrase directly echoes the beginning of the poem: the “monster in the shape of a woman” (Line 2). The echoing illustrates how myth becomes replaced with science over time. Women move from being monsters from myth to being instruments, used by men, as Herschel was used by her brother as his astronomical assistant. Herschel is reframed by the poet as the one who uses “instruments” (Line 5) to discover comets, rather than simply being an instrument used by her brother.

Perception and Recording of Women

A third theme develops the connection between the female scientist and the female poet. Rich uses encyclopedia-style quotes in stanzas 2 and 7 to represent history’s perception of Herschel and Brahe. The first-person speaker who emerges later in the poem aims for “reconstruction of the mind” (Line 45), including a reconstruction of the image of Herschel. In the final stanza, the speaker—the poet—attempts to reframe the writings about women using linguistic (language-based) “images” (Line 44), a medium similar to the one used to craft the myths represented by constellations, as well as reference books like encyclopedias.

The poet’s work of “trying to translate” (Line 43), or create new recordings of history and myth, is compared to the scientific work of recording astronomical findings. Herschel recorded what she found in “polished lenses” (Line 12), but for many years did not receive credit for her work. The astronomical act of recording “radio impulse[s]” (Line 32) from pulsars is similar to the poet’s work of trying to decode the experience of being a woman. Both women in science and women working as writers use language that was codified by men. Herschel and Rich both aim to show the world something beyond the sexist myths men cast on the stars and earth.