Thoughts and Words
Words are such futile things! They only grasp at thoughts, And leave them all unsaid, But half expressed, And wandering in the heart Unclothed, unfed!
Anna M. Johnson
SourceLicence:Public domain (US, unrenewed)
Words are such futile things! They only grasp at thoughts, And leave them all unsaid, But half expressed, And wandering in the heart Unclothed, unfed!
Anyone who has struggled to explain what they really feel will recognize the frustration in these six short lines. The speaker complains that words are "futile": they reach out for thoughts but never quite catch them, so what we say is only ever a fraction of what we mean. The thought stays "half expressed," and the rest lingers inside, still unspoken.
The most striking moment comes in the last two lines, where unspoken thoughts are pictured as something almost alive and vulnerable, "wandering in the heart / Unclothed, unfed." It's an image of neglect, like a child left cold and hungry. Language, the poem suggests, should be the thing that clothes and feeds our feelings, and it fails at the job.
The mood is wistful and a little sad, though not bitter. The short, uneven lines and the opening exclamation sound like a quiet sigh, as if the speaker has given up trying to say what can't be said.