Paul Laurence Dunbar, "Unexpressed" (1896)
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-'tis 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.
Published in Lyrics of Lowly Life, 1896
Also published in Colored American Magazine, January 1907