A 156: etext transcription

This is one of a number of late manuscripts in which the opposite sides of the paper constitute separate textual spaces. The text on A 156 is a rough-copy poem-draft; the canceled text on A 156a is an autonomous passage, possibly destined for incorporation into the body of a letter; alternatively, it may be notes for a poem; or, possibly, a brief, autonomous pensée. Although the uniformity of the handwriting across the manuscript suggests both texts were probably composed during the same scene of writing, their relationship to one another is unclear. Here again, Dickinson revised as she wrote, adding variant words and lines but never returning to resolve them. Though she ultimately canceled the text on A 156a, she let the poem-draft on A 156 stand. A transcript of a variant version of the poem made by Mabel Loomis Todd survives (A 156b); no autograph copy of this variant has been located.