ADRIENNE RICH

Adrienne Rich is a representative poet of American women's poetry. The subject of female
identity is a dominant theme of American feminist poetry and Rich plays the leading role in
search of this identity.
Identity, a significant concept of contemporary literature, has been discussed and
delineated by many and various scholars since classic eras in different genres of literary
writings.
In these selected poems, Rich becomes the voice of a silenced woman, far away from home
where her spirit resides, forsaken and desolated, shrieking fearlessly and seeking
regeneration of life; the poems re-echo the aches and pains of suffering women whose
identities would be defined by the standards of ill societies, whether they be Capitalist,
Marxist or whatsoever.
In other words, they represent the confounded soul of a woman who has been detached
from her very essence of being and strives to regain her lost voice in words; As Hélène
Cixous approves: "First, I sense femininity in writing by: a privilege of voice: voice and
writing are entwined and interwoven and writings continuity/voice's rhythm take each
other's breath away through interchanging, makes the text gasp or form it out of suspenses
and silences, make it lose its voice or rend it with cries".
Adrienne Rich, an influential contemporary American poetess and essayist, devoted a great
part of her writing to express her feminist thinking and beliefs. Her writing is not merely a
medium, which she uses to express her feelings and present her opinions on various
themes, but a means that she resorts to in order to change prevalent attitudes towards
women and femininity. Through her writing, not only does she describe the women’s roles,
which are imposed on them by society, but she also attempts to redefine female identity, as
is evidenced in the poems “Planetarium” and “Diving Into the Wreck”.
Rich, being an active member of the women’s rights movement of the 1970s, manages
through her work to express her feminist ideas and highlight the women’s need for unity
and solidarity.
In her first poetry collections, entitled A Change of World (1951) and The Diamond Cutters
(1955), Rich presents woman’s role in the patriarchal society and seems to view things from
the perspective of a woman who is trying to accept the duties and demands that her role
entails. She adopts a rather passive attitude towards what she describes and her writing
style accords with the traditional stylistic rules for writing which are dominant in that era.
The use of strict meter and rhymed stanzas, as well as the elegant writing characterized by
syntactic perfection, and accompanied with natural fluidity, reinforces the sense of self-
distance that Rich desires to achieve in her early writing. However, after her marriage and
birth of her children, Rich undergoes a transition in the point of view she adopts in her
poems, since she realizes that her engagement with her domestic errands does not permit
her to be committed to her art. It is during this period of time that she initiates to write
about the female experience and laments for women being oppressed by the patriarchal
society.
During the period of 1968-1970 Rich decides to make a transition in her life. Her poetic
collection The Will to Change, published in 1971,marks, as the title denotes, her early
attempt to explore women’s efforts to define their own reality.
The poem “Planetarium,” included in this collection, proves that Rich even at periods of
personal difficulty never stopped striving for a forceful articulation of her views with regard
to female position in society. In particular, she writes: “A woman in the shape of a
monster/a monster in the shape of a woman/the skies are full of them”. The poet uses the
word “monster” here so as to show that females do not conform to the patriarchal
stereotype that demands from them a complete devotion to their traditional roles. Rich
complains about the fact that women’s capacities and achievements are not acknowledged
by society and most of the times they are belittled and underestimated. As she informs us
with a note preceding the poem, “Planetarium” is inspired by the figure of the astronomer
Caroline Herschel, the sister of another distinguished astronomer, William Herschel.
However, being overshadowed by her brother’s recognition, Caroline's achievements and
hard work were never acknowledged or praised. As a result, Rich's note serves as a
statement for all women.
In her essay “When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Revision,” written for the MLA
Commission on the Status of Women in the Profession in 1971, Rich states that in
“Planetarium” it is the first time she identifies with the persona in a poem. As a female poet,
she often has to put up with social criticism because her work diverges from conventional
patterns and norms. The persona in the poem intends to express her indignation for the
pressure society puts on her. She feels emotionally overwhelmed and oppressed since
society deprives her of every opportunity to express herself freely. All these feelings also
become evident in the form of the poem, and in particular in the spacing between words
and lines. Rich uses enjambment and caesura as a means to imprint her resentment and
indignation.
Furthermore, she is obliged to use the patriarchal language imposed on her by society.
More specifically, she writes in “Planetarium,” “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”. The use of the verb “bombard”
plays an important role here as it conveys how overwhelmed she is by feelings of distress
and indignation. Between “I am bombarded yet” and “I stand”, there is an extra
typographical space allowing the personal to further highlight her intense feelings.
Moreover, the constant use of the personal pronoun “I” brings forth female subjectivity in a
much more forceful manner. Throughout the poem, she makes use of images that manifest
both her inner turmoil and physical pain. When she writes “Heartbeat of the pulsar/heart
sweating through my body”, she makes the body the means through which her feelings are
displayed and visualized. The poem is dedicated to all women who are “an instrument in the
shape/of a woman”, in other words a tool that everyone uses and manipulates.
Rich is critical of society’s attitude towards women, an attitude that undermines female
existence and creativity. She mentions that women’s powers have been always denied
throughout the years and women, being obliged to obey to social conventions, they have
had to suppress their own abilities and energies. At that point in the poem, Rich aims to
make women realize that they are not alone in their efforts since there are “galaxies of
women, there /doing penance for impetuousness”, and provide solace to them.
Another important element of the poem is that Rich refers to the role that the poet,
especially a female poet, has to assume. For her, “seeing is changing”, and the role of the
poet is dual. At first, the poet has to be an observer of the world and become aware of the
problems and concerns that torment people. It is only then that she will be willing to change
the situation by motivating, preparing and supporting people in their efforts to change their
reality. As a result, “Planetarium” finds Rich in the outset of a new era for herself, with her
role as a poet undergoing a major change. It is in the context of this attempt that she invites
all women to make their own contribution towards taking a step that will lead to the “relief
of the body/and the reconstruction of the mind”. Women should be actively engaged in the
process of changing their lives by embracing and not denying their abilities and skills. This
constitutes the first step towards establishing their new female identity.
Diving into the Wreck by Adrienne Rich, is written about the journey of a woman going deep
inside her soul to find out her true identity and her role in life. With numerous multi-
meaning metaphors, the poem could be interpreted in various ways. The depth of vivid
metaphors gives credit to Rich’s messagein this poem, through such symbols like “the
wreck”, “the book of myths”, “the camera”, “the knife”.
The journey to discover one’s identity is like a dive to discover a shipwreck, dangerous and
mysterious but fascinating. So many threats await down the deep level of the sea, yet the
charming adventure raises the irresistible invitation into the unknown world where the
woman may find her hidden self. She is afraid, she is uncertain about what lays ahead,
therefore she prepares and arms herself, with weapons, with knowledge, with the brave
expectation of new, great changes she may go through: “First having read the book of
myths, and loaded the camera, and checked the edge of the knife blade…” The wreck she is
diving into is the patriarchal society where she is living in, her community, her family, her
belief. To arm herself in this risky trip, she first read “the book of myths”, mastering the
knowledge of the world around her, and questioning the truth behind those unrevealed
myths.
This “book of myths” also comes from her life experiences, having encountered with
situations where she cannot find the answer to matters in life, wonders no one could ever
tell her, why her name among certain others “do not appear in the book”. Bringing all these
questions on the way down the bottom of the sea where “the wreck” is, the woman
equipped a “camera”, as though to capture every moment, every motion may occur in this
adventure. She does not want to miss any detail of the air that “is blue and then/ it is bluer
and then/black…”, the mermaid and the merman she became, or “the drowned face always
staring/toward the sun”.
The camera is her open mind to let new ideas, new images, and new perceptions pouring
into her mind, creating a new vision. The “knife blade”, on the other hand, is the protection
from the harm in her dive to explore the wreck. It also is the weapon to cut through the
damage, the wreck around her, the boundaries, and the limits society challenges her to get
through.
At the end of the poem, Rich does not declare whether the journey is right or wrong, she
simply suggests everybody take their camera and knife and explore in the deep sea, to find
their own self and mark their names in the book of myths.
Diving into the Wreck is where Adrienne Rich is reborn. Although to her it might be a
treasure hidden under the deep, blue water, she finally recognises her importance and her
desire despite the “book of myths” never included a female’s remark. She silently proclaims
to rewrite the “book of myths”, as she and other females, will take the risk to venture and
find their identities, their position in the history of the world.