Jones: etext transcription

This poem-letter was sent to Susan Dickinson around 1883 (RWF) or 1884 (THJ). For a related fragment, see A 249 / 250 (about 1883 [RWF], about 1883 or last decade [THJ]). The fragment appears on a scrap of stationery with several others, 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 poem. An echo of the opening lines of this text may be heard in a draft of Dickinson's last letter to Helen Hunt Jackson composed in March 1885 (THJ): "Immured the whole | of Life | Within a magic | Prison | We reprimand the | Happiness | That too com- | petes with Heaven - " (A 819).