African American Poetry: A Digital Anthology

Donald Jeffrey Hayes, "After All" (1927)

AFTER all and after all
When the song is sung
And swallowed up in silence
It were more real unsung. ...
After all and after all
When the lips have stirred
Such a little of the thought
Is transmuted in the word. .....
Suffer not my ears with hearing
Suffer not your thoughts with speech.
Let us feel into our meaning
And thus know the all of each.

Published in Caroling Dusk, 1927