been

   For what has beenöthanks! For what shall beöyes!

—Hammarskjo«  ld, Dag HjalmarAgne Carl

For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: 'It might have been!'

—Whittier,John Greenleaf

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.'

—Harte, (Francis) Bret

Dost thou look back on what hath been, As some divinely gifted man, Whose life in low estate began And on a simple village green; Who breaks his birth's invidious bar, And grasps the skirts of happy chance, And breasts the blows of circumstance, And grapples with his evil star.

—Tennyson

The songs I had are withered Or vanished clean. Yet there are bright tracks Where I have been.

—Gurney, Ivor