The transmission history of this letter is unclear. It may or may not have been mailed to Samuel Bowles the younger around 1883 (THJ, RWF). For an earlier draft of the poem, see A 249 / 250 (about 1883 [RWF, THJ]). This rough-copy poem-draft is inscribed on a scrap of stationery with several fragments, all of which appear to have been jotted down by Dickinson at the same time, perhaps in an effort to create a more permanent record of random lines. It is likely that she drew on this record when composing the letter to Samuel Bowles Jr.

One editorial notation is penciled on A 713: at top, center, MTB? 415. The notation indicates that the text—or a version of it—was published in Letters (1931), 415.