Dickinson/Bowles Correspondence: Poem 1072

poems sent from dickinson to bowles

Thomas Johnson's Note on Poem 1072

MANUSCRIPTS: There are two. That reproduced above (Bingham) was written about 1862 on two pages of a folded sheet of stationery and sent probably to Samuel Bowles. At the end of the poem ED has written:

Here's - what I had to "tell you" -
You will tell no other?
Honor - is it's own pawn -

A second copy (H 361), signed "Emily." was sent to Sue. On the evidence of handwriting it was clearly written at a later date, perhaps as late as 1866. It is variant in line 7, and a further line is added after line 11.

Title divine, is mine.
The Wife without the Sign -
Acute Degree conferred on me -
Empress of Calvary -
Royal, all but the Crown -
Betrothed, without the Swoon
God gives us Women -
When You hold Garnet to Garnet -
Gold - to Gold -
Born - Bridalled - Shrouded -
In a Day -
Tri Victory -
"My Husband" - Women say
Stroking the Melody -
Is this the Way?

PUBLICATION: The copy to Sue is in LL (1924), 49-50; CP (1924), 176-177, and later collections. The text is arranged as twenty-one lines. In line 8, "You" is altered to "two."

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