# The Unexpress’d explained — Leaves of Grass > Chapter companion for Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. ## What happens The chapter reflects on the vast accumulation of human expression through history—poems, songs, plays, and the works of great poets like Homer and Shakespeare—yet insists that there remains something essential and perhaps superior that has never been captured in words or print. ## Themes in this chapter ### The Poet as Prophet and Unifier The poet acknowledges the vast history of expression but asserts that the best remains unexpressed, hinting at a prophetic role for what is yet to be said. ### Individuality and Self The chapter emphasizes a personal, singular voice daring to question the completeness of all prior utterance. ## Character check-ins ### Narrator The voice that questions and reflects on the limits of expression. ### Shakespeare Mentioned among the great poets whose works are part of the long tradition of expression. ### Homer Cited as one of the canonical poets whose works have been part of the cycles of song. ### Heroes Referenced as part of the retrospective passions and subjects of past expression. ## Key lines > After the cycles, poems, singers, plays, Vaunted Ionia’s, India’s⁠—Homer, Shakespeare⁠—the long, long times’ thick dotted roads, areas, The shining clusters and the Milky Ways of stars⁠—Nature’s pulses reap’d, All retrospective passions, heroes, war, love, adoration, All ages’ plummets dropt to their utmost depths, All human lives, throats, wishes, brains⁠—all experiences’ utterance; After the countless songs, or long or short, all tongues, all lands, Still something not yet told in poesy’s voice or print⁠—something lacking, (Who knows? the best yet unexpress’d and lacking.) Despite all the poetry, songs, and plays from ancient Ionia and India, from Homer and Shakespeare, and all the accumulated human experience across ages and cultures, there remains something that has never been expressed in verse or writing—perhaps the greatest truth is still unspoken. _The core paradox of the chapter: the best is what remains unexpressed._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/leaves_of_grass_se/chapters/the-unexpress-d - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/leaves_of_grass_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/leaves_of_grass_se/chapters