A 144: etext transcription

The type and number of texts inscribed across the body of this manuscript, as well as the relations between them, are unclear. The text beginning "Back from the Cordial | Grave I drag thee," inscribed on both sides of the manuscript, may be a radically compressed lyric poem or the nucleus of a lost or unfinished poem. A single stray mark visible along the bottom edge of the manuscript indicates that text—probably composed on a different occasion—has been lost beyond the tear. The canceled line, "The mower is | tuning his scythe," may be a trial beginning for the poem, crossed out when Dickinson started the poem over on the other side of the scrap, or it may be an unrelated text fragment, composed on an earlier occasion and canceled when Dickinson used the scrap to jot down the lines "Back from the Cordial | Grave I drag thee." Slight differences in handwriting (see especially changes in the letter "s") in the two texts suggest that they were composed on different occasions. The "B" of "Back" appears to have been overwritten.