One of the many brief extrageneric texts found among her late papers after her death, Dickinson's final intentions toward this fragment remain unknown. It may have been destined for incorporation into a poem, a letter, or another composition; alternatively, it may be an experiment in aphoristic form; or, possibly, a compressed lyric poem unrecognized as such because of the crudeness of its material container. The careful lineation of the text strongly suggests that it is verse. Dickinson added the variant "valor" for "iron" either during the course of composition or immediately afterward, when scanning the draft a second time; it appears above the line, in a smaller hand.