MANUSCRIPTS: There are three fair copies. The copy reproduced above, in packet 16 (H 88b), was written about 1862. A second copy (Bingham), signed "Emily-," was sent to an unidentified recipient about 1862. It is without stanza division but is identical in text. It differs in form only in that line 3 lacks punctuation and the last word of the poem is not capitalized. A third copy (BPL Higg 16) was enclosed in a letter to T. W. Higginson (BPL Higg 56) written in April 1863. One variant is introduced:

8. stand] be

It is otherwise identical with the packet copy except that it entirely lacks punctuation.

PUBLICATION: Poems (1891), 37. It derives from the text of the packet copy.