BPL Higg 35: etext transcription

This fair-copy poem was enclosed in a letter (BPL Higg 73; J L 513) sent to Thomas Wentworth Higginson in 1877 (THJ, RWF). In the header, in pencil, Thomas Wentworth Higginson identified the poem as "The Blue Bird," based on Dickinson's characterization in the letter. Pinholes appear in upper left corner of manuscript, suggesting that other documents—perhaps the other poems enclosed with the letter—were attached to this poem or, alternatively, that the poems were attached to the letter, either by Dickinson or, more likely, by Higginson. The left edge of the manuscript has been folded over and pasted down; small amounts of glue or paste residue on the manuscript suggest that it may have been kept in an album. Three other poems were enclosed with this letter: "It sounded | as if the | streets were | running"; "She laid her | docile Crescent | down"; and "I have no | Life but this -." For an earlier fair-copy draft of the poem beginning "After all | Birds have | been investigated," see A 94-1 / 2 (about 1875 [RWF]; about 1877 [THJ]); for a rough-copy draft of the second stanza beginning "First at the | March," see A 127 (about 1877 [THJ, RWF]); for a fair-copy draft of the last lines of the poem beginning "Last to | adhere | When Summers | swerve away -," see A 298 (about 1877 [THJ, RWF]); and, for an identical fair-copy of the poem's final lines beginning "Last to | adhere | When Summers | swerve away -" and sent to Samuel Bowles, see A 711 (about 1877 [THJ, RWF]). For a related fragment, see A 255 (about 1877 [THJ, RWF]). In Poems (1998), R. W. Franklin suggests that A 255 was composed after A 298 and A 711, but before BPL Higg 35, since the fair-copy to Higginson reflects some of the changes introduced in the previous drafts. The definitive compositional history of the textual constellation, however, remains open to speculation.