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poems sent from dickinson to higginson
Thomas Johnson's Note on Poem 1210
MANUSCRIPT: The copy reproduced above (BPL Higg 39) was one of
three poems enclosed in a letter to T. W. Higginson (BPL Higg 67) written
in December 1872. Another fair copy (Bingham 98-1-9), written at the same
time, is identical in text:
The Sea said "Come" to the Brook -
The Brook said "Let me grow" -
The Sea said "Then you will be a Sea" -
"I want a Brook - Come now" -
The Sea said "Go" to the Sea -
The Sea said "I am he
You cherished" - "Learned Waters -
Wisdom is stale to me"-
On the verso are the final four lines, crossed out, of the poem beginning "Now I knew I lost
her."
PUBLICATION: SH (1914), 120. The text reproduces the first stanza only, and
probably derives from a copy now lost, sent to Sue. The text of the gingham
copy is in New England Quarterly, XX (1947), 31. Because Mrs. Bingham
suspected a slip of the pen, line 5 is altered to read: "The brook said 'Go' to
the sea."
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