A 175: etext transcription

Dickinson used the faces (A 175, A 175a) of both leaves to compose a rough-copy poem-draft and the reverse side (A 175b) of the first leaf to compose a rough-copy message-fragment as well as several lines that may be associated with the message-fragment, or, alternatively, may constitute an autonomous pensée. A 175 and A 175a may carry successive "stanzas" of a poem (compositional order unclear) or, rather, two variants of a single "stanza." The relations between and among the texts crossing A 175b are complex and ambiguous. Dickinson's rotations of the paper may suggest textual breaks or simply redirections of thought. Moreover, the single wavy line drawn through the text on A 175b may be a mark of cancellation or it may be an "arrow," connecting passages in the text(s) and suggesting a direction for writing-reading. Finally, the lines "Love first and | last of all things | made | of which this (our) | living world is | but the shade," which recall lines from Swinburne's "Tristram of Lyonesse," "Love, that is first and last of all things made, / The light that has the living world for shade," also resonate with lines in the poem-draft on A 175 / 175a, suggesting further, inter- and intratextual links between all of the texts inscribed across the manuscript. For a different interpretation of textual boundaries and word order, see Thomas H. Johnson's Letters (1958), PF 24, PF 41, respectively.