Maud Muller
"Maud Muller" is a poem from 1856 written by John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892). It is about a beautiful maid named Maud Muller. One day, while harvesting hay, she meets a judge from the local town. Each is smitten with the other. The judge thinks that he would like to be a local farmer married to Maud, while she thinks that she would like to be the wealthy judge's wife.
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Neither voices these thoughts, however, and both the judge and the maiden move on. The judge marries a woman of wealth whose love for him is based on his riches. Maud Muller marries a young uneducated farmer. Throughout the rest of their lives, each remembers the day of their meeting and remorsefully reflects on what might have been.
This poem contains the well-known quotation: "For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: 'It might have been!'"
Whittier's younger contemporary Bret Harte wrote a short parody and sequel to the poem entitled "Mrs. Judge Jenkins", which mocks Whittier's conclusion by having Maud marry the Judge after all, with far more disastrous results: Maud's relatives get drunk in the wedding, while Maud herself grows "broad and red and stout" after giving birth to twins. Both eventually come to regret the marriage: Maud because she finds the Judge's emphasis on knowledge boring, while the Judge bemoans Maud's lack of refinement and social grace.
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- Text of poem
- Text of Harte's parody
- "Maud Muller. Una poesia di John Greenleaf Whittier nella traduzione di Gabriella Rouf" (PDF). Il Covile. 2011. Retrieved 25 February 2013.
- Granite Marker at the site of Maud Muller Spring, York, Maine