MANUSCRIPTS: There are four, all written in 1883. The copy reproduced above (H H 77) was incorporated in a letter to Mrs. J. G. Holland written on 3 March; ED refers to Kate Holland's marriage on 27 September 1882 to Bleeker Van Wagenen, and the poem follows. The copy to Mrs. Edward Tuckerman (Amherst), identical in text and form, is signed "Emily -" Mrs. Tuckerman dated it in the margin "May 1883." The variant copy to Samuel Bowles the younger (privately owned: Bowles) was sent him in a note congratulating him on his engagement in October to Miss Elizabeth Hoar:
The Clock strikes OneThe fourth copy (Bingham 99-9) was among ED's own papers at the time of her death. It uses the text of the earlier drafts with the line arrangement of the later one:
The Clock strikes One That just struck Two -In Genesis 2.24 man and wife are declared one flesh; the "sorcerer" clearly enough is God, who fashioned Eve from Adam's rib. Whom ED had in mind when she created the variant "vagabond" is less clear. PUBLICATION: The message to Samuel Bowles the younger is in Letters (ed. 1894), 350; (ed. 1931), 338; also LL (1924), 347. The copy to Mrs. Holland is in LH (1951), 173.
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