The heroines lived with their husbands' shelved principles in an attic of ideals, kept dusted the broken bowls of justice, honor, all men hold the best and kept in the quiet reservoir of womanhood, a still lake where they leaned from the shore and saw not their faces but their faith, because what you cannot be must still belong to you. The heroines kept the attics clean because they believed the attic was Nirvana, that man could alchemize them into inexistence, but they were only caretakers, dusters of undone deeds, only ladies adrift in the lake. Ophelia, innocence offended, sang bawdy songs and drowned in the attic. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PASSING OF THE EX-SLAVE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON TO THE MEMORY OF INEZ MILHOLLAND by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON ON THE PROPOSAL TO ERECT A MONUMENT IN ENGLAND TO LORD BYRON by EMMA LAZARUS SPIRITUAL ISOLATION: A FRAGMENT by ISAAC ROSENBERG |