'AH me, but it might have been! Was there ever so dismal a fate?' -- Quoth the little blue mandarin. 'Such a maid as was never seen! She passed, tho' I cried to her "Wait," -- Ah me, but it might have been! 'I cried, "O my Flower, my Queen, Be mine!" 'Twas precipitate,' -- Quoth the little blue mandarin, -- 'But then ... she was just sixteen, -- Long-eyed, -- as a lily straight, -- Ah me, but it might have been! 'As it was, from her palankeen, She laughed -- "You're a week too late!"' (Quoth the little blue mandarin.) 'That is why, in a mist of spleen, I mourn on this Nankin Plate. Ah me, but it might have been!' -- Quoth the little blue mandarin. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MY SISTER'S SLEEP by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI MOST LOVELY SHADE; FOR ALICE BOUVERIE by EDITH SITWELL THE DREAM THAT CRACKED A WHIP by FRANCES AIRTH THE BIRDS: THE BIRDS' LIFE by ARISTOPHANES THE YEARS TO BE by WILLIAM ROSE BENET THE POET'S VOW by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING |