Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE HEROINES, by KAREN SWENSON Poet's Biography First Line: The heroines lived with their husbands' Last Line: And drowned in the attic. Subject(s): Attics; Heroism; Women; Heroes; Heroines | ||||||||
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 CONFESSION OF ST. JIM-RALPH by DENIS JOHNSON NOTES FOR AN ELEGY by WILLIAM MEREDITH THE EROTICS OF HISTORY by EAVAN BOLAND A SONG FOR HEROES by EDWIN MARKHAM AFTER THE BROKEN ARM by RON PADGETT PRELUDE; FOR GEOFFREY GORER by EDITH SITWELL EXAMINATION OF THE HERO IN A TIME OF WAR by WALLACE STEVENS |
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