Comments on: Adrienne Rich

By: Adrienne Rich, 1929-2012 | interstellar immigrant

Adrienne Rich, 1929-2012 | interstellar immigrant — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 01:04:07 +0000

[...] in the NY Times; in the interim between drafting and posting, I’ve noticed that I’m hardly the first person to notice Rich’s astronomical themes. Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:LikeBe the first to [...]

By: Arun

Arun — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 15:52:28 +0000

totally off-topic, but I saw a notice for the just completed conference – “We invite you to celebrate the developments in maximally supersymmetric gauge theories over the past 35 years and the completion of renovation on the fourth floor of Lauritsen-Downs.” — can you post pictures of the renovated floor, if appropriate?

By: Smith Powell

Smith Powell — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 20:03:53 +0000

As Venus and Jupiter have been in conjunction this month, readers might like the Adrienne Rich poem “On the Conjunction of Two Planets” written for an earlier conjunction of these two:

For the Conjunction of Two Planets

We smile at astrological hopes
And leave the sky to expert men
Who do not reckon horoscopes
But painfully extend their ken
In mathematical debate
With slide and photographic plate.

And yet, protest it if we will,
Some corner of the mind retains
The medieval man, who still
Keeps watch upon those starry skeins
And drives us out of doors at night
To gaze at anagrams of light.

Whatever register or law
Is drawn in digits for these two,
Venus and Jupiter keep their awe,
Wardens of brilliance, as they do
Their dual circuit of the west –
The brightest planet and her guest.

Is any light so proudly thrust
From darkness on our lifted faces
A sign of something we can trust,
Or is it that in starry places
We see the things we long to see
In fiery iconography?

by Adrienne Rich
Poems: Selected and New, 1950-1974

By: Tasha

Tasha — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 15:51:41 +0000

Thank you for the lovely post Sean. I am a fan, and I had not heard about her death.

By: Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 01:30:21 +0000

“Are there many lesbian feminist celebrated poets who can’t really write, but became celebrated poets just because they happen to identify as lesbian and feminist?”

Are you suggesting that it is possible for a bad poet/novelist/etc to acquire fame purely for political reasons? Perish the thought.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 18:41:08 +0000

Are there many lesbian feminist celebrated poets who can’t really write, but became celebrated poets just because they happen to identify as lesbian and feminist? I admit that there’s a lot I don’t know about the world of poetry, so maybe there are, but it sounds fairly ridiculous (although vaguely reminiscent of all the times I was told in high school and college that I was pretty good at math for a girl).

By: Sean Carroll

Sean Carroll — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 18:03:55 +0000

There’s no reason why someone’s identity as a feminist lesbian should get in the way of their skill as a poet. But other people talking about the fact that she was a feminist and lesbian could easily distract us from the fact that she was also a skilled poet. The point is that she did not become a celebrated poet just because she happened to be a feminist and lesbian, although those were crucial aspects of her identity; she became celebrated because she could really write.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 17:30:21 +0000

Why would someone’s identity as a feminist lesbian get in the way of her skill as a poet (or her skill at anything else)?