After All — Summary

In these lines, the speaker is wondering whether words ever truly capture what we mean. Once a song is sung, it disappears into silence, and maybe it was more real before it was voiced. In the same way, when people speak, only a small part of their thought actually makes it into language. The speaker seems quietly frustrated by that gap, but also accepting of it. Rather than struggle with hearing and speech, they ask for a deeper, wordless connection: “Let us feel into our meaning / And thus know the all of each.” The mood is intimate and reflective, almost like a hushed conversation between two people who trust each other enough to stop explaining. It’s a poem about the limits of language and the hope that feeling can carry understanding further than words can.