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A still voice mutters 'mid our misery, The worst to hear, because it must dissemble— We might have been!

Life is made up of miserable hours, And all of which we craved a brief possessing, For which we wasted wishes, hopes, and powers, Comes with some fatal drawback on the blessing. We might have been!

The future never renders to the past The young beliefs intrusted to its keeping; Inscribe one sentence—life's first truth and last— On the pale marble where our dust is sleeping— We might have been.

Bring flowers to crown the cup and lute,— Bring flowers,—the bride is near; Bring flowers to soothe the captive's cell, Bring flowers to strew the bier! Bring flowers! thus said the lovely song; And shall they not be brought To her who linked the offering With feeling and with thought?

Bring flowers,—the perfumed and the pure,— Those with the morning dew, A sigh in every fragrant leaf, A tear on every hue. So pure, so sweet thy life has been, So filling earth and air With odours and with loveliness, Till common scenes grew fair