MANUSCRIPTS: There are two. The fair copy reproduced above conludes a letter (BPL Higg 60) to T. W. Higginson, postmarked 9 June1866. Except that there the two sentences are arranged each as a paragraph, it is here exactly rendered. The lines are preceded by the thought: "To escape enchantment, one must always flee." The poem is a redaction of a penciled draft (Bingham l00-7) written at the same time:

Paradise is of the option.
Whosoever will
Dwell in Eden notwithstanding
Adam and Repeal.

The suggested change is adopted in the fair copy.

PUBLICATION: The letter to Higginson is in Letters (ed. 1931 only), 282-283, where the prose arrangement is retained. The rough draft is reproduced in BM (1945), 318, where it is placed among the fragments. The suggested change is rejected.