Analysis of Unexpressed

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



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.


Scheme ABABCDCDEFEC
Poetic Form
Metre 10111110010 01111101 1101111010 011010101 11111101111 0111010101 01111111111 11111111111 01110111010 0101111101 01011111110 11110111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 552
Words 108
Sentences 6
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 12
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 36
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 426
Words per stanza (avg) 106
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 29, 2023

32 sec read
71

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar was a seminal American poet of the late 19th and early 20th centuries Dunbar gained national recognition for his 1896 Lyrics of a Lowly Life one poem in the collection being Ode to Ethiopia more…

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