Before I got my eye put out | Affiliated Manuscripts

Harvard (Fr336A)

ca. 1862, August

Ink | Fair copy

On stationery

Poem enclosed in a message to T. W. Higginson.

Before I got my eye
put out
I liked as well to see –
As other Creatures, that
have Eyes
And know no other way –

 

But were it told to
me – today –
That I might have the
sky
For mine – I tell you
that my Heart
Would split, for size of
me –

Recipient

Thomas Wentworth Higginson (b. 1823–d. 1911)

Writer, critic, social activist, friend; with the exception of Susan Gilbert Dickinson, Higginson is Dickinson’s most constant correspondent.

Inclusive dates of correspondence: April 1862-May 1886. Letters: 70; poems: 103.

Address: 16 Harvard Street, Worcester, Mass.

Distance Travelled: 37 miles