No autograph copy survives of this poem which concludes a letter written to Mrs. J. G. Holland shortly before Christmas 1881. The lines are in memory of Dr. Holland who had died in October.

PUBLICATION: Letters (ed. 1894), 187; (ed. 1931), 179; also LL (1924), 339. The text above derives from Letters, as does the text in LH (1951), 156.