Response to the Fragment, p. 347.
" The specters of long buried hours
Throng round me, thick and fast;-
The might have been of life is lost
In the unreturning past."
1. Hush!-These are tones unfit for thee,
Heav’n’s chos'n one! It cannot be
That thou, in mere humanity,
Canst chide " what is."
2. What "might have been" is none of thine;
It sounds no chord, no note divine;
It tells of earth, of man, of time
That "might have been."
3. Or knowest thou not what hand has traced
Thy path,-thy portion through the waste
There's naught of chance, of loss, of haste
In His "What is."
4. 'Tis He who once was very man
And knows man's need, and will, and can
Make part of His eternal plan
Thy "might have been."
5. Amen! Amen! (the soul replies)
Blest hand that curbs, controls, denies!
Each loss with Thee becomes a prize
Each "might have been" loss!