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).