Princeton: etext transcription

This fair-copy poem-draft, composed around 1878 (RWF), was found among Dickinson's papers after her death. Mabel Loomis Todd gave it to Denis Wortman in the 1890s. A note in the header of the manuscript reads: "By Emily Dickinson | given D. Wortman in 1896 (?) by | Mrs. Professor Todd, | March." For a fair-copy of the poem composed in 1871 (RWF) or 1872 (THJ) and sent to Susan Dickinson, see H 369. A fragment, A 509 / 510, inscribed with a variant of the poem's last lines, may have been Dickinson's point of departure for the 1878 version of the poem. For an intermediate-copy draft of the 1878 version of the poem, see A 508; for a fair-copy draft of the 1878 version of the poem, possibly intended for Elizabeth Holland, but found among Dickinson's papers after her death, see A 511; for a fair-copy of the final stanza composed around 1883 (RWF) and signed "March," see A 786; this copy may have been sent to Mabel Loomis Todd.