For the living, the concept of regret involves a difficult triangulation of past, present, and future. By recognizing the missteps of the past, the person illuminates with new perception the unfolding present and, in turn, commits to applying the lessons learned to engage a more productive and more rewarding future. Regrets are paid forward—learn from the past to reshape the future, to tap into promise that, without the difficult (and painful) realizations of regret, would be otherwise lost. In short, regret is productive, positive, and rewarding.

“George Gray,” indeed, most of the poems in Masters’ collection, applies the dynamics of regret to those upon whom its illuminations are lost: the dead. From the perspective of the afterlife, life’s bad choices, missteps, flawed judgments, and ill-considered actions are frozen moments, the regret now inevitably the stuff of bitterness and irony. In this, the poem counsels to the reader to look upon your life and learn its most difficult lessons now. For that reason, the saddest and most poignant word in the poem appears in Line 10: the sad, single word “now.” I know, George Gray concedes, now that I am dead, I know I should have lived when I was alive. Because the poem offers no specifics—particular relationships avoided, specific adventures declined, definable moments of regret—the poem touches everyone with the capacity to dream and the lack of nerve to follow that difficult path.