Words; Their Use and Abuse

by William Mathews

My thoughts upon expression, and thus throw

Soul, heart, mind, passions, feelings, strong or weak,

All that I would have sought, and all I seek,

Bear, know, feel, and yet breathe,—into one word,

And that one word were lightning, I would speak;

But, as it is, I live and die unheard,

With a most voiceless thought, sheathing it as a sword.”

So, too, that great verbal artist, Tennyson, complains:

“I sometimes hold it half a sin

To put in words the grief I feel;