H L8

JL 103

OMC 14

5 March 1853

ink, one sheet, four pages

watermark/embossment: N, no symbol

19 x 12 cm.

folded in rectangles

FF 188-189, in part. Pencilled lines across second, fifth, sixth, and eighth (last) paragraph. In the first paragraph, Dickinson uses "it" to refer to her emotional "heart" in a way that recalls her use of "it" in the "Master" letter Johnson calls the third and Franklin designates as the second (A 829, L 248). Johnson notes that Austin, who left for Harvard Law School in Cambridge in early March, has apparently asked Emily to address at least four envelopes for him to send to Sue. "Little mystic one" is probably an allusion to "The Life Clock," translated from German and printed in both the Hampshire Gazette and Northampton Courier in the late 1840s (L 60n):

There is a little mystic clock,
No human eye hath seen,
That beateth on and beateth on
From morning until e'en.

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Image reproduced by permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University. Not to be reproduced in whole or in part without permission.
Transcription and commentary copyright 1996 by Martha Nell Smith, all rights reserved
Last updated on June 4, 2001
Maintained by Lara Vetter

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