Dickinson/Holland Correspondence: Poem 1570

poems sent from dickinson to elizabeth holland

Thomas Johnson's Note on Poem 1570

MANUSCRIPTS: The copy reproduced above (H H 79) was incorporated in a letter written to Mrs. J. G. Holland in March 1883. The copy below (Bingham 106) is identical in text; it is part of a letter written evidently at the same time to an unidentified recipient:

Forever honored be the Tree
Whose Apple winter-worn -
Enticed to Breakfast from the sky
Two Gabriels Yester Morn.
They registered in Nature's Book
As Robins, Sire and Son -
But Angels have that modest way
To screen them from renown -

ED sent a copy now lost to Sue, whose transcript of it (H ST 17e) reads thus:

Forever cherished be the tree
Whose Apple Winter worn
Enticed to Breakfast from the sky
Two Gabriels Yestermorn
They registered in Nature's book
As Robin - Sire & son
But Angels have that modest way
To screen them from renown

It is variant in the first line. Perhaps the singular form of "Robin" in line 6 is a variant.

PUBLICATION: The copy to Sue furnished the text in SH (1914), 6. One word is altered:

2. worn] warm

The copy to Mrs. Holland is followed in LH (1951), 176.

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