Dallen,

Thanks, whoever you are. I stand corrected. John Greenleaf Whittier it is!
The poem predates Bret Harte's quote by about a decade. I think the title is
"Maude Muller" and not "Maude Mullins," however.

Also, David, I believe the opening phrase is actually, "For of all sad words
... ." This could be a diagramming challenge. How would you deal with the
doubled prepositions?

Paul

----- Original Message -----
From: DALLEN <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2001 11:45 AM
Subject: Re: "It might have been."


> It's from the poem "Maude Mullins".
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David D Mulroy [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2001 9:11 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: "It might have been."
>
>
> I think Bret Harte is quoting an earlier source.  By chance, I ran across
> the quote in one of the Reed and Kellogg books, as a sentence for
> diagraming: "Of all sad words of tongue or pen the saddest are these: 'It
> might have been.'" They attribute it to Whittier.  John Greenleaf, right?
>
>
> On Tue, 16 Oct 2001, Paul E. Doniger wrote:
>
> > The line is by Bret Harte (ca. the 1860s):
> >
> > If, of all the 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!"
> >
> > from "Mrs. Judge Jenkins"
> >
> > How about an analysis of " ... hadn't ought to be." There's an
interesting
> construction!
> >
> > Paul E. Doniger
> >
> >   ----- Original Message -----
> >   From: jacarta
> >   To: [log in to unmask]
> >   Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2001 2:30 PM
> >   Subject: "It might have been."
> >
> >
> >   How would you analyze the verb phrase in the sentence
> >   It might have been.
> >
> >   By the way, does anyone know the title and author
> >   of the poem that includes a verse that goes something like
> >   the "saddest words are 'it might have been'."
> >   Thanks.
> >
> >   --José Santos
> >
> >
>
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