Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: “It might have been!””
- Source
- Maud Muller
- Date
- 1854
- Local voice
- Poetic speaker · Narrator of “Maud Muller”
Meaning of “For of all sad words of tongue or…”
Whittier compresses regret into the imagined alternative life: both Maud and the Judge later measure their ordinary lives against a possibility neither chose when they briefly met.
Where does it come from?
“Maud Muller,” in The Works of Whittier, Volume I, Project Gutenberg #9567. The poem first shows both characters imagining the life they might have shared, then calls “It might have been” the saddest formulation before ending with a separate note of hope.
Why the local voice matters
The narrator closes the imagined parallel lives of Maud and the Judge with this reflection on missed possibility before the poem turns toward a final note of hope.
