A 339: etext transcription

This rough-copy poem-draft, composed around 1872 (THJ, RWF), was found among Dickinson's papers after her death. For a later echo of the lines "Per-suasive | as Perdition," see Dickinson's fragment A 309 / 310 (about 1880 [RWF], about 1880 or last decade [THJ]). The outside of the slit envelope is addressed by Lavinia Dickinson, in black ink, "Dr. E. M. Pease | Springfield | Mass -."

One editorial notation is penciled on A 339a: right of address, MTB: 107. The first notation may refer to the number of 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, Bingham also penciled the notation "107" on the manuscript itself.