A Study on Adrienne Rich’s Poem “Power”
Adrienne Rich’s poem “Power” attempts to redefine what power is. The poem
gives rise to the idea that because we are living in a world that has been
historically masculine, everything is defined in masculine terms. It suggests
that our definition of power is also masculine, and therefore throughout history
and still today, the power that women attempt to achieve has been a masculine
definition of power. By trying to achieve power through this masculine
definition, women have not achieved true power. Women need to understand power
on their own terms to truly achieve it. Rich also seems to be saying that the
role of women’s power is ironic, and has been repeated throughout history.
The first line of the poem suggests that we are living in the past. This
line is very important, as Rich as made it the only line in the first stanza.
The second stanza gives an image of digging into the layers of the earth,
uncovering different eras. One artifact that is uncovered is an amber bottle,
presumably filled with a tonic that helped people get through the hardships of
life. The statement “the winters of this climate” (line 5), when taken
literally, seem to place the poem somewhere where the winters are probably quite
harsh, as the tonic is used to get through these winters.
The third stanza talks about Marie Curie. Adrienne Rich uses Marie Curie’s
power as an example in her poem, so it would seem best to do some research on
Curie’s life. She was born in 1867, in Poland, during a time of Russian
oppression. She left Poland to study in Paris, where she met, and soon married,
her husband Pierre Curie. Both of them were physicists, and together they
discovered radium. In 1903, this discovery earned them the Nobel Prize in
Physics, and “gave birth to a new science and a new philosophy”. They continued
to work together, furthering their research. After her husband Pierre died
suddenly in 1906, Marie continued with the work they had begun. She accomplished
much throughout the rest of her life, winning the Nobel Prize a second time,
this time in Chemistry. In December of 1911, Marie Curie received her second
Nobel Prize; this time she was the sole recipient and she became the first
person to have ever have received this award twice. Knowing this about Curie we
realize that she was a woman who gained a type of power that was virtually
unknown to women of her time, and also quite rare today. This makes her a good
model for Rich to use of a woman’s power in our world. Using a figure like Curie
is also what tells us that this poem is primarily about women’s power, and not
just power in general. There is a lot of irony in these last two stanzas. Rich
talks about how Marie Curie became ill and eventually died from radiation
sickness, a direct cause of the work she was doing with radium, which was the
source of her power in the scientific world. Rich is using Curie as a model for
women’s power, but the description that she uses of Curie when she is sick, in
lines eleven through thirteen, shows an image of someone without power. It is
important to note that Rich’s description of Curie is similar to one her
daughter Eva uses in a book she wrote about her mother: “her rough hands,
calloused, hardened, deeply burned by radium, . . . [became] stiff and fearfully
motionless--those hands which had worked so much.” The fourth and final stanza
gives emphasis to the irony of Curie dying from the same thing that gave her
power. She also talks about how Curie denied that radiation was what was killing
her. This was also historically accurate, Curie did suspect that her work with
radium was making her sick, but she only admitted this to close family members.
She wrote this about it to her sister in 1920:
Perhaps radium has something to do with these troubles, but it cannot be
affirmed with certainty.
“These are my troubles. Don’t speak of them to anybody, above all things .
. . .”
This first reading of the poem touches only the surface meanings within it. The
poem is rich with metaphors and deeper meanings that I will explore throughout
the rest of this essay.
As I look closer into the poem I want to look at each line or phrase, and
how they relate to and support what the poem is saying. As I stated earlier the
first line of the poem suggests that we are living in the past. The “earth
deposits” are artifacts or pieces that reflect what society was like in the
past. Archeologists can discover a lot about the past from what they discover on
archeological digs. If we are living in those same deposits, then we are
essentially living in the past. This reference to the earth-deposits and the
past is important to remember when we reach the third line and look at the amber
bottle.
The second line, which is also the first of the second stanza, is rich
with metaphors. Literally, it talks about a backhoe which has uncovered
something from the earth. However, it doesn’t say that so simply. It is
interesting that she used the word “divulged”. She could have a word that was
more common, such as uncovered or revealed, but she did not. Webster’s
Dictionary defines divulged as: “to make known, publish; to make common or
universal; to make known, spread abroad; to make known, reveal, communicate;
allow to transpire”. This tells us that the bottle that was uncovered was
uncovered for everyone to see, it was not just revealed to those who had dug it
up. Whatever the bottle represents (which I will discuss later), is something
universal, for everyone to see. The word “flank” seems somewhat out of place
when you first read the poem. It seems as if it might have been easier to say it
was a piece or layer of earth. There is always a reason for an author to choose
the word they use, so I again went to the dictionary to help figure Rich’s
intent. Flank is defined as: “the fleshy part of the side of a human or animal
body between the ribs and hip; a butcher’s term; the side of a mountain or hill;
of a fortification or other building”. This suggests an area that is large,
vital and strong, but possibly vulnerable as well. This becomes important when I
discuss what the earth represents. It is important to note the crumbling of this
earth. Out of this earth came a bottle. Bottles are sometimes said to contain
messages, and this may be a message to the future. It is a bit reminiscent of a
time capsule. The word “amber” stands alone, separated by spaces, this signifies
its importance. Amber is the petrified sap of trees from a long time ago, and
often this sap, when it was running down the trees, would capture an insect and
preserve it perfectly in the amber. An amber bottle then gives us the feeling of
a preservation of what it contained, which fits well with the image of a time
capsule. The word “perfect” gives us a sense that it was preserved perfectly and
is exactly the same as it had been a hundred years ago. This is again an image
of us living in the past. In the forth line it says what is in the bottle. It is
a cure for fever or melancholy. The break between the two phrases shows that
there is possibly some uncertainty as to what exactly it was used for, or maybe
the uncertainty is in what the sickness really was. It almost suggests that it
was used to cure many things. It was a tonic, she says nothing about a medicine.
In the past tonics were used to help with different sicknesses, often the same
one was used for many different illnesses. Often they had alcohol in them and
possessed no medicinal qualities, they simply masked the symptoms and numbed the
pain. We also know that alcohol can actually hinder the body’s natural defenses
for fighting off illness, and too much alcohol can also lead to alcoholism, a
disease in itself. It seems that these tonics may have actually hindered the
person taking them from getting over the sickness. With this in mind, the cure
it talks about may only be perceived and not a cure at all. It is a tonic for
all things, in general, for living on the same earth that uncovered the bottle.
The last phrase of the stanza: “the winters of this climate”, portrays a harsh
and difficult image, winter has traditionally been described as times of
hardship.
I want to now look at what some of the images in this second stanza may
represent. We know that this is poem about women’s power, so we must look at
where this is represented within this stanza. I think that women’s power in our
society is represented by the tonic. Many women believe that power will be the
cure to a masculine dominated society, but the power that women try to achieve
is power as defined by this masculine society. This power does not truly cure or
solve our sicknesses or problems with a male dominated society. This masculine
society is represented by the earth, and the backhoe then represents the women’s
movement. The backhoe is digging into and crumbling the flank (refer to the
above definition) of the earth, but is only going further back into its history,
and this has historically not worked. The women’s movement is trying to break
down a male dominated society, but seems to be turning to the same means they
have used throughout history. We must also remember that history was written
primarily for men and about men. The climate she speaks of is one of a masculine
society, and the winters show the difficult times women have endured through it.
It is also important to remember that you must be equipped to survive in a
winter climate. Men are obviously equipped to live in the climate they have
created, but women may not necessarily equipped to survive in a masculine world.
This brings about an idea of Darwin’s theory of the survival of the fittest. Men
are acclimatized to this society and equipped to live within it, therefore they
will survive. In order for women to survive in this society, they must either
adjust to it’s ways, or change society. Women have yet to uncover a true
solution to this, and I believe that Rich is trying to show that as long as
women continue to try and achieve our power through the masculine definition,
women will not achieve true power. Women need to find a power of their own. This
seems to an opinion held by some feminists, and Rosalind Miles states the
opinion clearly when she says: “All the clichés of power are masculine.”
The third stanza is about Marie Curie. Curie achieved the masculine
definition of power. This stanza shows that what is defined as power for men may
not be truly powerful for women. Curie’s power was obtained in the scientific
world. At her time, and even to some extent today, this was a world limited to
men. She achieved what many believe to be the highest honour in science -- the
Nobel Prize. She was also the first person, man or woman, to do this twice. Her
research on radium was what gave her this power, and ironically it also took
power away form her. She became sick from the radiation. She isolated the
element radium, and her exposure to this element throughout her years spent
studying it, eventually killed her. Rich states this in lines eight and nine. By
portraying the image of the element bombarding her, she seems to give the power
to radium, “the element / she had purified.” Line ten talks about her denial,
which I will examine closer in the last stanza. In lines eleven to thirteen she
shows an image of Curie that is not very powerful. The idea of cataracts tells
us that it is difficult to see, it depicts a certain blindness. This could
relate to a certain blindness in all women. I find the description in line
twelve to be especially interesting. It talks about skin that is drying and full
of puss. This picture of her skin and hands seems very weak. In this masculine
society, one of the ways that the power of a woman has been defined is through
her looks and her grace. A woman’s skin is supposed to soft, her hands are
supposed to be graceful. Radiation has taken this male definition of female
power away from Curie. In line twelve it has taken a male definition of male
power away from her as well. She can no longer hold the instruments she used to
work and achieve her power.
The last stanza shows her denial until her death that the thing that was
giving her power in this masculine society, was the same thing that was killing
her. If Curie were to admit to the radiation killing her, this would undermine
the power she thinks it has given her. This seems to say that what she thought
was power, (or her cure for the “sickness” of struggling in a male dominated
climate) was not really power at all. It was actually making her less powerful,
just as many tonics made illnesses worse. Another interesting thing to note in
this stanza is the repetition of the words “denying / her wounds”. This
repetition parallels the repetition of women trying to use a male definition of
power to survive in this world.
This deeper examination of the poem shows many parallels between the tonic
that was uncovered, Marie Curies power and the power of women. Just as the tonic
was not really a cure for sickness, only a mask of the symptoms; Curie’s
accomplishments did not really give her power, but were merely a mask of a power
that society saw. Rich seems to want to show women’s struggle to survive in a
society that is dominated and defined by males. The poem is ironic in that the
way women have achieved what is perceived as power has been what actually takes
away what is truly powerful. The women’s movement has accepted the male
definition of power, and tried to survive in a masculine world by achieving that
power. A women we must realize that the only true power we can gain must be
defined by us. If we are to continue to live in a masculine climate, we will
have to use masculine means to survive. It is not that we need to adapt to this
climate, but we need to adapt the climate to us. We need to redefine what power
means in feminine terms, and learn how to achieve it on our own terms. Rich
seems to be saying all of these things within her poem, and she is ultimately
trying to redefine what women think of as power.
Bibliography
Curie, Eva. Madame Curie. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1938
Dube, Leela, Eleanor Leacock, and Shirley Ardener, ed. Visibility and Power.
Oxford:
Oxford University, 1986
Duby, Georges, and Michelle Perrot, ed. A History of Women: V. Toward a Cultural
Identity in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Harvard University, 1994
Miles, Rosalind. Women and Power. London: Macdonald, 1985
Rich, Adrienne. “Power” The Norton Introduction to Poetry. Ed. J. Paul Hunter.
New
York City: Norton, 1996
Stephenson, June. Women’s Roots. Napa, California: Diemer, Smith, 1988
Webster Universal Dictionary, Harver Publishing Co., Holland, 1968