The relationship between the fragments composed on the opposite sides of the paper is ambiguous. The text inscribed on A 838 appears as a trace in a letter to Maria Whitney (Ms Am 1118.10 [6]) composed in 1878 (THJ), soon after the death of Samuel Bowles. The text inscribed on A 838a, by itself an autonomous, extrageneric fragment, may have been destined for incorporation into a poem or a letter, perhaps the letter to Whitney; alternatively, it may be a private comment on Maria Whitney's grief, not included in the final draft of the letter in order to preserve the letter's consolatory tone. Several stray pencil marks along the top edge of A 838 indicate that text has been lost beyond the tear, though whether the lost text belonged to the extant fragment or to another composition is not known.