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Has Been

Topics: classic

That melancholy phrase "It might have been,"          However sad, doth in its heart enfold          A hidden germ of promise! for I hold     WHATEVER MIGHT HAVE BEEN SHALL BE.         Though in     Some other realm and life, the soul must win          The goal that erst was possible.    But cold          And cruel as the sound of frozen mould     Dropped on a coffin, are the words "Has been."     "She has been beautiful" -"he has been great,"          "Rome has been powerful," we sigh and say.          It is the pitying crust we toss decay,     The dirge we breathe o'er some degenerate state,     An epitaph for fame's unburied dead.     God pity those who live to hear it said!

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"That melancholy phrase "It might have been,"..."

Ella Wheeler Wilcox's contribution to classic is further solidified by the brilliance found in "Has Been"... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

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"Luck is the tuning of our inmost thought          ..."

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