poems from dickinson to ned dickinson


Thomas Johnson's Note on Poem 1459

MANUSCRIPTS: Three copies of these lines are extant, all in pencil and all written about 1879. The text above (H B 196) is from the copy ED sent to her nephew Edward Dickinson, headed "Ned -." The poem follows and the note concludes:

Suggested by our Neighbor -
Emily -

This may be another poem inspired by the Lothrop case which was settled in April 1879. For an account of the case, see the poem "A Counterfeit - a Plated Person." The second copy (Bingham 98-3-5) is identical in form and text. The third copy (Bingham 98-3-6) is identical in text; it is entirely without punctuation and the letters have been hastily formed. The story of Belshazzar's feast is told in Daniel 5.

PUBLICATION: Poems (1890), 39.


return to poem 1459 | index to dickinson/ned dickinson poems

search the archives

dickinson/ned dickinson correspondence main page | dickinson electronic archives main menu


 
Commentary copyright 1998 by Martha Nell Smith, all rights reserved
Maintained by Lara Vetter <lv26@umail.umd.edu>
Last updated on January 15, 1999