We might have been!—these are but common words,
And yet they make the sum of life's bewailing;
They are the echo of those finer chords,
Whose music life deplores when unavailing,—
We might have been!
Alas! how different from what we are,
Had we but known the bitter path before us!
But feelings, hopes, and fancies, left afar,
What in the wide, bleak world can e'er restore us?—
We might have been!