MANUSCRIPTS: There are two, both written about 1863. A third, known to have been written, is now lost. That reproduced above (Bingham) is in a letter to an unidentified recipient, sent probably to Samuel Bowles. It is without signature, and the poem is preceded by the message:

Dear friend If you doubted my Snow - for a moment - you never will - again - I know -

Because I could not say it - I fixed it in the Verse - for you to read - when your thought wavers, for such a foot as mine -

Through the Straight Pass of Suffering
The Martyrs even trod -
Their feet upon Temptation -
Their foreheads - upon God -

A Stately - Shriven Company -
Convulsion playing round -
Harmless as streaks of Meteor -
Upon a Planet's Bond -

Their faith the Everlasting Troth -
Their Expectation - sure -
The Needle to the North Degree
Wades so - through Polar Air -

2. even] steady
4. foreheads] faces
10. sure] fair

PUBLICATION: The poem first appeared in the Independent, XLIII (12 March 1891), 1, titled "The Martyrs." It derived from the lost copy to Sue which she sent to the editor, Dr. William Hayes Ward. The exchange of letters regarding it, written by Susan Dickinson and Dr. Ward, is in AB, 114-118. With the same title it was issued in Poems (1891), 33, and follows the text of the fair copy above, then in Mrs. Todd's possession. The third word in line 1 is spelled "straight." In both printings, one word is altered:

8. Bond] bound