Explore "I Didn't Think" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
If all the troubles in the world / Were traced back to their start, / We'd find not one in ten begun / From want of willing heart. / But there's a sly, woe-working elf / Who lurks about youth's brink, / And sure dismay he brings alway -- / The elf, 'I didn't think.'
He seems so sorry when he's caught; / His mien is all contrite; / He so regrets the woe he wrought, / And wants to make things right. / But wishes do not heal a wound / Or weld a broken link; / The heart aches on, the link is gone, / All through -- 'I didn't think.'