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H bMS Am 1118.95, Box 12

Notes

There are two copies of the poem in Emily's hand, one in Fascicle 67 (H 11) and the other a pencil copy sent to Susan but with her name erased. According to Franklin, the poem "came to Mabel Todd from the Bowles family, forwarded through Austin Dickinson, who may have erased his wife's name" (FP 123n). This typed version may have been intended as an afterword to Susan's volume of Emily's poetry. It differs markedly from the two copies mentioned above in punctuation and capitalization. Susan has added "Afterword" and "Emily Dickinson," as well as punctuation marks throughout; additionally, she has marked through the word "many" in line 12, and replaced it with "merry," a variant that is not found in either extant manuscript.