A 332: etext transcription

This rough-copy poem-draft, composed around 1882 (RWF) or 1884 (THJ), was found among Dickinson's papers after her death. For a variant fair-copy draft of the poem, see A 333; for related fragments, see A 636a. Dickinson may have jotted down the fragments on the envelope while working on the rough-copy draft of the poem.

One editorial notation is penciled on A 332: reverse, below the last line of the text, MLT?: 98 (3). The notation may refer to the number of the envelope, and subdivision within the envelope, in which Mabel Loomis Todd stored this unbound manuscript. In her "GUIDE to the use of the microfilm of THE EMILY DICKINSON MANUSCRIPTS" Millicent Todd Bingham notes that Mabel Loomis Todd affixed the numbers 80–98 to the envelopes containing fascicles or individual poems, while Bingham herself affixed all numbers greater than 98 to the remainder of the envelopes. Presumably, Todd, or possibly Bingham, also penciled the notation "98 (3)" on the manuscript itself.