MANUSCRIPT: There are three fair copies. That reproduced above (H 380b) was written late in 1875 or early in 1876. A second (BPL Higg 43) was one of five poems enclosed in a letter to T. W. Higginson (BPL Higg 83), written in January or February 1876. The two are identical in text and form except that periods replace dashes in lines 2 and 4 in the copy to Higginson. The third (Bingham 98-4B-17) was written about 1877 in pencil. It is identical in text and form with the copy reproduced above except for a period at the end of line 4, and dashes at the end of lines 7 and 8.

PUBLICATION: FP (I929), 138. The text is arranged as two stanzas of 6 and 5 lines. In later collections the quatrains are restored.