MANUSCRIPT: The copy reproduced above, in packet 93-8 (Bingham), was written early in 1872. Another copy of the second stanza only concludes a letter (BPL Higg 75) which ED wrote T. W. Higginson about 12 March 1872. Higginson's brother Francis died on 9 March. She saw a notice of his death in the newspaper and wrote Higginson a brief note of sympathy. The two copies of the stanza are identical, except that a dash concludes the second line in the Higginson copy.

PUBLICATION: The packet copy is in Poems (1896), 159; the letter to Higginson is in Letters (ed. 1894), 321; (ed. 1931), 296; also LL (1924), 300.