MANUSCRIPT: Late 1862, in packet 25 (H 134d).

PUBLICATION: BM (1945), 201. It derives from a transcript made from the packet copy by Mrs. Todd. The word "Bird" (line 5) in the packet copy is written "birds" in Mrs. Todd's transcript, and is so rendered in BM. A variant of this poem, without stanza division, is incorporated in a letter now lost, sent to the Norcross cousins on the occasion of the death of their father, Loring Norcross, 7 January 1863. It is published in Letters (ed. 1894), 251; (ed. 1931), 229; also LL (1924), 253. The variants are in three lines:

1] It is not dying hurts us so
6. ere the] soon as
7. Accepts] Adopts