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.