<h2><SPAN name="page56"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>“HAS BEEN”</h2>
<p class="poetry">That melancholy phrase “It might have
been,”<br/>
However sad, doth in its heart enfold<br/>
A hidden germ of promise! for I hold<br/>
<i>Whatever might have been shall be</i>.<br/>
Though in<br/>
Some other realm and life, the soul must win<br/>
The goal that erst was possible. But cold<br/>
And cruel as the sound of frozen mould<br/>
Dropped on a coffin, are the words “Has been.”</p>
<p class="poetry">“She has been
beautiful”—“he has been great,”<br/>
“Rome has been powerful,” we sigh and
say.<br/>
It is the pitying crust we toss decay,<br/>
The dirge we breathe o’er some degenerate state,<br/>
An epitaph for fame’s unburied dead.<br/>
God pity those who live to hear it said!</p>
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