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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.

Written by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)

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