The Continuing Evolution of Poem #585
Anyone who writes has probably hesitated, at one time or another, between the choice of this word or that. Emily Dickinson often hesitated permanently between words and phrases and left her hesitations plainly marked on the best copies of her poems. This has made the job of editing Dickinson's poetry complicated. Even the more well known of her poems differ widely from edition to edition.
The following pages present a short history of the ongoing evolution of poem #585 ("I like to see it lap the miles"), starting with a representation of the original manuscript and closing with an opportunity to edit the poem again. In between are the first published version of the poem (edited by Mable Loomis Todd) and the version--currently canonical--in The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson edited by Thomas Johnson.
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