Quote #5

Alas for maiden, alas for Judge, For rich repiner and household drudge! God pity them both! and pity us all, Who vainly the dreams of youth recall; For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: 'It might have been!'

More from John Greenleaf Whittier

  1. A manly form at her side she saw, And joy was duty and love was law. Then she took up her burden of life again, Saying only, 'It might have…
  2. The best of a book is not the thought which it contains, but the thought which it suggests; just as the charm of music dwells not in the to…
  3. He wedded a wife of richest dower, Who lived for fashion, as he for power. Yet oft, in his marble hearth's bright glow, He watched a pictur…
  4. So, closing his heart, the Judge rode on, And Maud was left in the field alone. But the lawyers smiled that afternoon, When he hummed in co…
  5. Maud Muller, on a summer's day, Raked the meadows sweet with hay. Beneath her torn hat glowed the wealth Of simple beauty and rustic health.

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