Unexpressed

Paul Laurence Dunbar

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.

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