MANUSCRIPTS: This poem survives in three copies, all written in 1877: two variant fair copies, and the worksheet draft from which they are derived. The copy reproduced above (BPL Higg 36) was enclosed with three other poems in a letter to T.W. Higginson (BPL Higg 73) written in August 1877. In a letter (but not on the copy of the poem) ED has titled it "Word to a Friend." The variant fair copy is incorporated in a letter to Samuel Bowles. It is without stanza division, but is otherwise identical with the copy to Higginson except that lines 6 and 7 lack punctuation, and the last line reads: "The love of you." The worksheet draft (Bingham 98-3-12), jotted down in pencil on the inside of an envelope, reads thus:

I have no life [strikethrough: to live] but this
[strikethrough: But] To lead it here
Nor any Death but lest
Abased from there -
dispelled
withheld -
deprived from there -
Nor plea for World s to come
nor tie to
Nor Wisdoms new
Except through this extent
expanse -
The loving you -