bookmarked 6. — Amulya Hiremath

Astronomy: Relativity by Sarah Howe and Sonnet 14 by Shakespeare

Deeksha Bhandarkar chose Sonnet 14 by Shakespeare (1609), and Amulya Hiremath chose Relativity by Sarah Howe (The Paris Review, 2015)

Deeksha: Why did you choose astronomy?

Amulya: I just felt like astronomy felt like a cool topic to talk about for a change. I think it goes back to the poem we had in undergrad called ‘Planetarium’ by Adrienne Rich that I liked.

Deeksha: Right. Only you liked it, but I feel like I should go back to that poem!

Amulya: Hahaha yeah, looks like it. Why did you choose the sonnet by Shakespeare?

Deeksha: I had read it a while ago and felt it fit the theme.

Amulya: Great! Shakespeare has finally entered the series. It was going to be sooner or later.

Deeksha: Why did you choose the one you gave me?

Amulya: I was looking for poems with the theme and I was googling furiously. I came across so many but interestingly this was the only one that I could like picture in my head and it made sense. The others I didn’t understand at all, but this one instantly connected. There was something so artistic in the science it talks about and I think that’s important when you are combining two seemingly different fields of study.

Deeksha: Great!

Relativity —

Deeksha: The title points to Einstein’s celebrated theory of 1915 — relativity. The poet Sarah Howe and Hawking have a link, which is that both of them have been a part of Caius College. Hawking came there, after his PhD, and never left and she has also come there just like him. October 8 is celebrated as National Poetry Day in England and to inspire the nation to seek poets within themselves, they ask poets to write poems on a topic. She was selected for Forward Prize for her first poetry collection and that’s why she was commissioned in 2015 and the theme was ‘light’. And she decided to explore the absence of light, leading to the black hole, which is has been Hawking’s life work.

Amulya: That’s so interesting she went there when the theme was light because there are so many ways you can write about it, without even touching on science.

Deeksha: Yeah. There is as much poetry in it as there is science. So these fourteen lines explore the complexities of space and time that physics explains. These complexities are so difficult to articulate that even scientists seek metaphors to explain them. The poet is so fascinated by science borrowing the imagination of the poet to explain itself.

Amulya: That is fascinating! And Sarah is just a Chinese-British poet — a researcher in English Literature — with no direct connection to science.

Deeksha: The most fascinating thing about this whole thing is Hawking and Sarah collaborated. After she decided on the subject and because they both belonged to the same university, she let him know and sent him the first draft. That’s when he wanted to actually meet her. Hawking himself recites this poem in a short film by Bridget Smith and the visual for it is silvery carbon fragments hypnotically flowing in waves across a dark screen. How cool is that?

Amulya: Wow! Is there a clip of it somewhere?

Deeksha: Yeah, it was meant to be circulated on social media.

Amulya: Great, I will link it in the end!

Deeksha: The poem starts with panicked waking in darkness, in the middle of the night, where the eyelids are not fully open. Hence, the eyelashes act like slits to show the dual nature of light. This is in reference to Young’s double-slit experiment which tells that when there is a slit, the light starts travelling as waves through the slit and spreads throughout the room. She uses wordplay of wave “with a wave bid all certainties goodbye” — hence proving the dual nature of light.

Amulya: Such cool science stuff, I am loving this.

Deeksha: She uses these metaphors in the next part where she finds similarities between the universe and the Doppler effect and explains the concept of time dilation. The Doppler effect explains what happens when a moving object emits a wave. It was first discovered in sound, like when an ambulance moves, the pitch of its siren changes — as if the sound itself is being stretched in time. So when she says, “for what is sure in a universe dopplers away like a siren’s midnight cry” she’s alluding to the fact that our universe is in constant expansion and motion, in a way where we don’t know where anything will be. Stars and galaxies far from us are moving further away from us — we discovered that they’re getting redder and redder in colour as this happens — while our universe is expanding on its own. She again uses clever wordplay here because Sirens are mythical creatures who are known to make a terrible, unique sound — called the Siren’s Song — which is why ambulance and police sirens are also named after them.

Amulya: I am amazed at how much meaning she has fit into that one line.

Deeksha: She draws similarities to a perfect afternoon. What she is trying to say is, when you are trying to explain a concept which you cannot explain in terms of science for someone to understand, where it reaches a point where you cannot communicate with the person, you just start using metaphors to convey what you’re trying to say, even if it is science. Hypothetically if you can imagine parallel lines meeting, you can apply the same thing and talk about black holes. There is no point in me explaining the science behind this poem because I would again be using metaphors.

Amulya: Right. Almost like science cannot exist in its absolute form.

Deeksha: Yeah, even art. They help each other out to express themselves.

Amulya: That’s why poets and scientists should talk.

Deeksha: Right. So, in the end, she says light coming from the stars at infinity, cannot avoid an effect as simple as Doppler’s or Young’s. The theory states that at their meeting point — which happens at infinity — if you look at parallel lines from an angle they look like they’re going to meet. Even the light from the stars which bend so much still adhere to the concept because they cannot resist. And if we can think like this, conjure up metaphors to think about it, why aren’t our eyes adjusting to the darkness, is the question she leaves us with. She starts the poem when you wake up in a panic in the darkness, why can’t our eyes adjust to the darkness.

Amulya: Perfect.

Deeksha: The first part talks about the duality of light, using the metaphor of eyes and eyelashes. In the second part, she explains the universe and how time dilation feels. And if we as humans have the ability to think beyond whatever we see or what is factual, why can’t we adjust to the darkness.

Amulya: I think the ending is so hopeful.

Deeksha: Let me just say the fact that I understood this poem is a huge thing to me because I have never tried to understand science. But even if I can have a vague idea of what someone is talking about when they talk about this, that means that there is a scientist in me, just like there is a poet in everyone. Most of them think science and art cannot live together like if someone scores well in science, they are not supposed to take arts.

Amulya: Exactly, it’s such a misconception and we create this unnecessary binary divide. The world would change so much faster if this wasn’t there. But saying that, I feel like this poem is science neatly wrapped in art. Like you can still grasp it without having to do the tedious research that science sometimes demands. If you read the poem on its own, without doing the intense study of what each of the scientific terms means, it’s still a great poem. The metaphor of the perfect afternoon, for example, is open to so many interpretations.

Deeksha: Exactly. Even time dilation for that matter is science but even if you equate it to a subjective feeling, it still seems related. That’s something wonderful and only a very gifted person can write this and break the barrier.

Amulya: Yeah, to sit with Stephen Hawking and create art.

Deeksha: After reading this, I am like wow this is such an interesting world I had shut myself to.

Amulya: Right? Do you think that intangibles that poets try to make sense of and scientists try so hard to discover, they meet on the same plane somewhere?

Deeksha: That is why in the preface to this thing, she says that Milton met Galileo and in his Paradise Lost he is there as a character, only in the past few centuries people have differentiated science and art. As humans, we have the capacity to understand all of this.

Amulya: Our eyes need to adjust in the dark, still.

Deeksha: Yeah, as if it will someday. Also, shoutout to my friend Gautam who patiently took three hours to explain this poem to me, because I was freaking out without understanding. He drew diagrams and showed gifs so all of this is his explanation. Also, he was like I don’t understand poetry but when he was explaining he was like wow this is actually great. And another shoutout to Partha for simplifying some of the science bits.

Amulya: Okay wow, I made a science person like poetry and a poetry person like science. It’s a personal win.

Deeksha: Exactly and I would want to maybe open Brief History of Everything and read a page or two. I feel like this gave me the confidence to open up to science. I feel like science is as much as fantasy as fiction is, but it’s trying to prove it’s not.

Amulya: It’s so interesting how something so definitive as science — which is like a four-cornered box with strict rules — is put here artistically. Like it has so many interpretations and we can go on and on and on like we are right now.

Deeksha: Yeah, and also the fact that if we can hold a conversation about science — and we’ve never spoken about science before.

Amulya: Yeah, we have actively shut it out of our lives for various reasons.

Deeksha: Yeah, I might not so much from now on.

Watch Stephen Hawking read ‘Relativity’ by Sarah Howe:

Sonnet 14 —

Amulya: Shakespeare has finally entered the series.

Deeksha: Thanks to me.

Amulya: I don’t think Shakespeare, of all people, needs an introduction. But this is Sonnet 14, which classifies it as one of the Fair Youth sonnets. It is also a procreation sonnet — where Shakespeare tries to convince the Fair Youth to have a child so his beauty can be preserved for generations. I’m not sure why he was so preoccupied with it but oh well.

Deeksha: Yeah. That’s what the world is living for.

Amulya: So, here astronomy interestingly is actually used to refer to astrology because back then they were used quite interchangeably.

Deeksha: Like psychology and philosophy.

Amulya: Right. They’re like stars, sure works both ways. Anyway, so the sonnet starts with Shakespeare claiming he cannot predict the future and base it on stars. Pretty sensible, he’s like I can’t tell you if the future holds good or bad events. He’s consciously giving up control over the universe. He actually felt a little human for a second.

Deeksha: Yeah.

Amulya: The second part, however, is classic, corny Shakespeare. He says stars aren’t what helps him predict the future BUT what does help him are the Fair Youth’s eyes, which are also like stars! I think it’s one of the oldest metaphors in the book — stars for eyes.

Deeksha: Yeah — sun, flame, gems.

Amulya: So he says his eyes are reliable guides, like north stars. Shakespeare then says he can predict one thing using these newfound stars and that is truth and beauty will continue to thrive as long as this guy has a child who will carry all of his finest attributes further. In the final couplet, we get another prediction, when the Youth dies, beauty and truth will also die with him. So, this is the sonnet in a nutshell.

Deeksha: I really feel like astronomy, when you reach a point where you cannot understand, leads you back to astrology.

Amulya: Astrology and astronomy have such a fine line dividing them. Like you’re looking at the same stars at reading it from different viewpoints or fields of study.

Deeksha: Exactly.

Amulya: It’s interesting how they were interchangeable once and have now developed into their own sciences. Looking at it from the point of view of our theme, there are certainly astronomical elements in the Shakespearian sonnet — this just goes to show how stretchable poetry and science are.

Deeksha: Yeah, and you can go further and say our ability to think. Science is no different from writers who write huge fiction.

Amulya: Right. So, the sonnet’s central metaphor is the stars that are apparently the Youth’s eyes and overarchingly the theme is the universe and it shows its scale when Shakespeare throws his hand up and says I don’t have control over it. It’s also interesting how poetry was already having scientific influences back in Shakespeare’s time and some critics also believe he might have been influenced by his contemporary Philip Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella. So the early scientific influences actually started around this time, especially with the metaphysical poets and how you mentioned Milton going to see Galileo.

Deeksha: Yeah, metaphysical poets were revolutionary.

Amulya: Yeah, it’s such a telling of the times.

Deeksha: Also the fact that Shakespeare inculcated it so casually. We are now scared of doing anything like that because we haven’t studied science formally.

Amulya: Oh yeah, that’s so true. They so nonchalantly compared stars with eyes and clouds with dreams and so on. I think it’s the conventional relationship science and poetry have with each other through these metaphors, using them both ways.

Amulya: That said, do you want to compare the two poems?

Deeksha: Yeah, so firstly, they are both sonnets. And they are written in two different time periods, showing the growth of the field.

Amulya: Also, you know what is interesting? The fact that some of the things they didn’t know back in Shakespeare’s time, we still don’t know even today, like what black holes.

Deeksha: Right? But we started talking about it.

Amulya: Right, we gave it a name.

Deeksha: And who knows when we will actually figure it all out.

Amulya: Exactly.

Deeksha: I also think we should explore more science in literature. And what is interesting is when my friend explained it all to me, it was the same way we discuss a poem. If we were taught that way in school, I think it would have made such a difference. Again, huge thanks to Gautam. I was freaking out thinking great, science is now appearing in poetry also and I’m not able to understand the one thing I thought I was good at.

Amulya: Ah hahaha. My choice of theme clearly did not help, initially. Another similarity is in the first poem, she brings the entire universe into the confines of a lab — which to me is fantastic — and if you think about it, it’s just your mind. And Shakespeare is doing exactly that but bringing in stars into his Fair Youth’s eyes. Like, they’re compressing the universe to fit their spaces. I think that’s beautiful in a way. Another thing is they are both looking at the universe in awe and are trying to make sense of it.

Deeksha: Yeah. I think that’s what we can all do, at the end of the day.

We would love to hear from you! Let us know your thoughts, interpretations and anything in between in the comments below!

ABOUT:

Deeksha Bhandarkar and I met in our MA English class. Both of us sharing Mysuru as our hometown, and Mysuru being the smallest place in the world, we grew up in the same literary backyard — attended the same story-telling sessions on Saturdays, watched the same plays, visited the same bookstores and had a bunch of mutual friends. But it was only in 2021 that our paths finally converged.

Sharing a passion for literature and a curiosity to explore more facets of it outside our postgraduate classrooms, we decided to pick a piece of literature each and swap our choices, having the other person interpret and discuss our pick, with a hope to gain new perspectives on writing we have loved individually.

Bookmarked is an ongoing, weekly series, we hope you enjoy it! Happy reading!