To Emily Dickinson
From Helen Hunt Jackson

20 March 1876

But you did not send it back, though you wrote that you would.

Was this an accident, or a late withdrawal of your consent?

Remember that it is mine - not yours - and be honest.

Thank you for not being angry with my impudent request for interpretations.

I do wish I knew just what "dooms" you meant, though!

A very clever man - one of the cleverest I ever met - a Mr. Dudley of Milwaukee, spent a day with us last week, and we talked about you. So threads cross, even on the outermost edges of the web.

I hope some day, somewhere I shall find you in a spot where we can know each other. I wish very much that you would write to me now and then, when it did not bore you. I have a little manuscript volume with a few of your verses in it - and I read them very often - You are a great poet - and it is wrong to the day you live in, that you will not sing aloud. When you are what men call dead, you will be sorry you were so stingy.

Yours truly
Helen Jackson.