A 880: etext transcription

Physical Description
- Manuscript: A 880
- Date: [last decade (THJ)]
- Status: fragment, extrageneric
- Formula: 2 fragments, pinned
- Paper: quadrille stationery
- Dimensions: fragment 1: 31 x 118 mm; fragment 2: 38 x 118 mm
- Edges: fragment 1: top, right: torn; fragment 2: top, left: torn
- Media: pencil
- Hand: rough
Collection
- Amherst College Library
Transmission History
- MSS from LND to MLT, 1891?
Publication History
- NEQ 28 (September 1955): 312; Letters (1958), PF 51
Commentary
- This fragment is one of a small number of apparently autobiographical texts found among Dickinson's late papers after her death. It may have been destined for incorporation into a longer composition, possibly a letter, or an extended autobiographical meditation either never composed or long since lost. Dickinson composed a variant for the opening "We" ("he") but did not alter the rest of the text to be consistent with the proposed change. The adoption of the variant reading might well remove the fragment from the space of autobiography. Traces of an unidentified handwriting appear along the top edge of the reverse side of the first fragment.
Tags

< a880.txt.1; fragment_extrageneric >
We he said she said
Lord Jesus - receive my
Spirit - We were put
in separate rooms
to Expiate our temerity

<fragment 2 (A 880a), pinned over fragment 1 (A 880)>
and thought how hateful
Jesus must be to get
us into trouble when we
had done nothing but
Crucify him and that
before we were born -