Adrienne Rich

"Was it worth while to lay -
with infinite exertion -
a roof I can't live under?"

- 'The Roofwalker' by Adrienne Rich

In this poem, Rich talks about her fear of exposing herself artistically, but also of the unhappiness that comes with stifling her creativity. She talks of the male-dominated world of poetry, which she is afraid to enter, because she will be vulnerable, exposed, but she wonders in these lines if the effort it has taken to restrict herself creatively has even been worth it, as now she feels that she can no longer hide beneath the roof she has built for herself. In addition, I think it's interesting that the term "glass ceiling" had not been coined at the time this poem was written (1961) yet when we read it now, it has that double meaning, although Rich's ceiling is self-constructed.