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!"

Bret Harte wrote a famous parody of this famous poem, "Mrs. Judge Jenkins" in which the Judge marries Maud, and which he ends with the lines: / Maud soon thought the Judge a bore, / With all his learning and all his lore; / And the Judge would have bartered Maud's fair face / For more refinement and social grace. / If, of all words of tongue and pen, / The saddest are, "It might have been," / More sad are these we daily see: / "It is, but hadn't ought to be".