Relativity at the midnight matinee

Karen Schofield

Seven Sisters twinkle in the autumn skies,
safe from Orion for eternity
for us to see. The end of a journey
through the vastness of space so long and far
their light set off as two star-crossed lovers
were created quill by quill, page by page.
And now we watch as actors tell their tale,
a tragedy unfolds, a doomed romance,
Juliet’s wish for Romeo to be
cut into stars and pasted in the sky.
We see a constellation high above
while on the stage they’ve reached the final scene.
If we could we’d travel back in time, change
the ending, give us all a second chance.

The Science

The poem explains time in terms of how long it takes light from far-away stars to travel vast distances to reach us. The Seven Sisters, also known as the Pleiades, are about 440 light years from earth and the light we see from them started its journey around the time that Shakespeare was writing Romeo and Juliet. The poem mixes the experience of watching a midnight matinee (e.g. at the open-air Globe Theatre in London) with the stellar imagery of the star-crossed lovers and the impossibility of travelling back in time to change the ending of the play.

The Poet

Karen Schofield is a retired hospital doctor with an interest in science and poetry. Karen was awarded third place in the 2016 International Hippocrates Prize and has had several poems commended. Her poems have also been published by Fair Acre Press in These are the Hands: Poems from the Heart of the NHS.

Next poem: Saltus Lunae by Roy Woolley