274,1862.Again – his voice is at the door –
ED suggested seven alternate words/phrases, in {curly brackets}: Line 8, 10, 13, 17, 18, 25, 29. My edits in [brackets]:
Again – his voice is at the door –
I feel the old Degree –
I hear him ask the servant
For such an one – as me –
I take a flower – as I go –
My face to justify –
He never saw me – in this life –
I might surprise {not please} his eye!
I cross the Hall with mingled steps –
I – silent {speechless} – pass the door –
I look on all this world contains –
Just his face – nothing more!
We talk in careless {venture} – and in toss –
A kind of plummet strain –
Each – sounding – shyly –
Just – how – deep –
The other’s one – had been – {foot had been}
We walk – I leave my Dog – at home {behind} –
A tender – thoughtful Moon –
Goes with us – just a little way –
And – then – we are alone –
Alone – if Angels are “alone” –
First time they try the sky!
Alone – if those “veiled faces” – be –
We cannot count – {That murmur so – ; That chant so – far -}
On High!
I’d give – to live that hour – again –
The purple – in my Vein –
But He must {should} count the drops – himself –
My price for every stain!
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A close inspection of F274 manuscript PAGE 4 suggests ED intended to break the final nonet (nine-line stanza) into two quatrains, combining LINES 25-26 into one LINE 25. Her sequence of thoughts certainly begs for a stanza break there:
Alone – if Angels are “alone” –
First time they try the sky!
Alone – if those “veiled faces” – be –
We cannot count – On High!
I’d give – to live that hour – again –
The purple – in my Vein –
But He must count the drops – himself –
My price for every stain!
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ED’s manuscript of this poem fills five pages of her fascicle, more than any preceding poem. It must have been an important poem to her because she continued considering changes in her final fascicle copy, which is atypical of ED.
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- L1: “Again – his voice is at the door –”. Habegger (1998) tells us “Wadsworth’s deep bass tones, ….., produced an unforgettable effect.”
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- L8: “I might surprise his eye!”. ED considered replacing “surprise” with “not please”, which suggests she wanted to please her visitor.
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- L10: “I – silent – pass the door –”. ED considered replacing “silent” with “speechless” but didn’t. She certainly was not “speechless” in her conversations (JL342b, 16 August 1870).
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- LINE 13: “We talk in careless – and in toss –”. ED considered replacing “careless” with “venture”, but didn’t. Who knows what unspoken words follow “careless” and “toss”. Note that Stanza 4 is a quintain.
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- LINES 16-17: “Just – how – deep – / The other’s one – had been –”. ED’s original Lines 16 – 17, written in dark ink with a broad-bibbed pen read, “Just – how – deep – / The other one – had been –”, with no apostrophe “s”. Perhaps she was implying without stating, “Just – how – deeply in love – / The other one – had been -”.
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She considered replacing “other one – had been” with “other’s foot had been”, editing with lighter ink and a narrow-bibbed pen, perhaps thinking of the cliché “head over heels in love”, but she rejected the idea. Editors have ignored the obvious difference in the two pen tips.
Susan Kornfeld July 11, 2020 at 9:16 AM, [On ‘The Prowing Bee’ blog, TPB]
[ https://bloggingdickinson.blogspot.com/2012/06/again-his-voice-is-at-door.html?showComment=1594484193691#c6232886251522264990 ]
[T]here are too many signals, I think, that the poem refers to some assignation in this earthly life. There is the ‘again’ in the first stanza, there is the conversation as if between two equals and there is the speaker extracting a price from the ‘he’.
Larry B June 11, 2026 at 6:36 AM, Same TPB URL, [Brackets] mine
Susan, your intuition is right on.
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Habegger (1998) tells us:
“[ED] was in Washington, DC from Saturday, February 10, 1855, to Friday, March 9. She was in Philadelphia from Saturday, March 10 to [at least Monday, March 26]. She and Vinnie probably attended Wadsworth’s sermon on March [25], 1855, their last Sunday in Philadelphia.
“ED saw Rev Wadsworth only three times in her life: [late March 1855, summer 1860, summer 1880]
“After three weeks of Washington, Edward took his daughters to Philadelphia and then went home, leaving Emily and Vinnie to spend at least two weeks with their friend and second cousin, Eliza Coleman, on Nineteenth Street below Chestnut.
“On Saturday, March 10, 1855, ED and Vinnie arrived in Philadelphia after their visit to Washington, DC, with their father. They checked into the Willards Hotel, probably for one night, and [he] then left them with their friend and second cousin, Eliza Coleman, and returned to Amherst. They stayed with Eliza for two more Sundays, the 18th and 25th. On one of those Sundays, probably March 18 [My guess is March 25, ED’s last Sunday in Philadelphia], Eliza took them to Arch Street Presbyterian Church to hear the famous Rev Charles Wadsworth preach. One sermon was all it took, ED fell in “love”. After preaching, Wadsworth’s habit was to sit bowed at his pulpit, lost in thought; she probably did not meet him personally after the service.”
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Sometime after 1855, ED began correspondence with Wadsworth, probably by asking him for counsel concerning her mother’s illness. She continued corresponding with him, and he visited her twice at her home in Amherst, probably during the summers of 1860 and 1880.
Habegger (`1998) presents compelling evidence, and I agree, that Wadsworth, 16 years ED’s senior, was the recipient of the three Master Letters, which Franklin dated “about 1858”, “about 1861”, and “early 1862”.
There’s one surviving letter from Wadsworth to ED, probably dated soon after he received ML1. In his letter he misspelled her last name and expressed sincere pastoral concern about her health, probably based on the alarming tone of ML1.
I believe that this poem, “Again – his voice is at the door –”, concerns Wadsworth’s summer 1860 visit with ED. The first word in the poem, “Again”, refers to the first time she heard his voice, on Sunday, March 25, 1855, at Arch Street Presbyterian in Philadelphia. As far as we know, his only other visit with ED in Amherst was during summer, 1880.
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Susan KornfeldJune 11, 2026 at 10:18 AM on TPB
Thank you for this and your earlier commentary. You make a strong case for Wadsworth!
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Habegger, Alfred. 1998. My Wars Are Laid Away in Books (p. 373). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.