"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.