A 836: etext transcription

This fair-copy letter-poem, composed around 1883 (THJ) or 1884 (RWF) and addressed to Professor [Edward] Tuckerman, was found among Dickinson's papers after her death. For an earlier, fair-copy draft of the poem, with alternatives, see A 386 (about 1883 [RWF], about 1884 [THJ]); for a related fragment, see A 112 (about 1883 [RWF], about 1884 or last decade [THJ]).

Two editorial notations are penciled on A 836: upper left, partly erased, MLT?: 98; upper right: ?. 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 Todd, or possibly Bingham, also penciled the notation "98" on the manuscript itself. The authorship and significance of the other notation are not known.