poems sent from dickinson to higginson


Thomas Johnson's Note on Poem 1258

MANUSCRIPT: Late 1873 (H 378). Another copy, now lost, ED sent to Col. Higginson (AB, 129). It seems to have been originally a fair copy which, evidently soon after it was written, ED turned into worksheet draft. The changes she made are final because in every instance she crossed out the original words and substituted the new choices in pencil. The text above is the one she finally created. The original readings, crossed out, are these:

2. We] I                                                  10. we] I
3. us] me                                                 12. specify] answer me
4. portentous] in terror                             13. the felicity] had the readiness
5-6] Through Accents terrible as Death    14. we] I
        To one that never died-                    16. time ensue to be] time to be ensue
5. appalling] alarming alarming                      (order altered by placing numbers over
6. Childhood] Distance                                  them thus: 1, 3, 4, 2)
7. We] I                                                   21. achieve] behold


PUBLICATION: SH (1914), 116-117. The text is correctly rendered; it is arranged as three eight-line stanzas.


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Commentary copyright 1998 by Martha Nell Smith, all rights reserved
Maintained by Lara Vetter <lv26@umail.umd.edu>
Last updated on February 21, 2000