alas!

She was the only person that this writer has ever heard utter the words “Yes, alas!” and not sound like a fool.

The Last Empress Hannah Pakula 2009

I hope I have been misformed but, alas! it all has too true a ring.

A Life in Letters F. SCOTT FITZGERALD 1994

Such would be my liberty, except that in my Elizabeth I possessed a treasure; alas! balanced by those horrors of remorse and guilt, which would pursue me until death.

Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus Mary Shelley 2004

But unfortunately alas! this most warlike and very brave man being helpless against his enemy, was slain as if he were one of no account, and he who was most famous in war through the overthrow of so many enemies, perished by the scheme of one little woman.

The Early Middle Ages 500-1000 Robert Brentano 1964

They first landed on the eastern side of the island, by the invitation of the unlucky king, and there fixed their sharp talons, apparently to fight in favour of the island, but alas! more truly against it.

The Early Middle Ages 500-1000 Robert Brentano 1964

By the same token, it follows alas! that coercive utopia would almost certainly have endured much longer, perhaps well into the next century, had it succeeded in gratifying mankind’s minimal material aspirations.

Out of Control Zbigniew Brzezinski 1993

“Now I have him!” he must have said to himself, as the captain would turn toward him in his walk; “now’s my time!” and up would go his hand to his cap; but, alas! the captain was off again; and the men at the guns would cast sly winks at each other as the embarrassed lieutenant would bite his lips with suppressed vexation.

Behavior in Public Places ERVING GOFFMAN 1963