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!” 

This famous quotation is taken from an 1856 poem by the American poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier; he is also the gentleman responsible for the line in a poem about Barbara Frietchie:  “‘Shoot, if you must, this old gray head / But spare your country’s flag,’ she said.” 

(June 2013/1)