After All

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.

Credit

From Caroling Dusk (Harper & Brothers, 1927), edited by Countee Cullen. This poem is in the public domain.

Author

Donald Jeffrey Hayes

Donald Jeffrey Hayes was born on November 16, 1904, in Raleigh, North Carolina, and was raised in Atlantic City, New Jersey. In 1913, he and his family moved to Pleasantville, New Jersey, where Hayes attended high school and earned a reputation as a skilled debater. Hayes completed high school in Chicago in 1926.

Date Published

01/01/1927