The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar/Unexpressed

UNEXPRESSED

Deep in my heart that aches with the repression, And strives with plenitude of bitter pain, There lives a thought that clamors for expression, And spends its undelivered force in vain.

What boots it that some other may have thought it? The right of thoughts' expression is divine; The price of pain I pay for it has bought it, I care not who lays claim to it—'t is mine!

And yet not mine until it be delivered; The manner of its birth shall prove the test. Alas, alas, my rock of pride is shivered— I beat my brow—the thought still unexpressed.