ABSTRACT
Text and publication First publ. M & W, 10 Nov. 1855, the concluding poem; repr. 1863 (when it was placed at the end of ‘Men, and Women’, with an explanatory note: see Appendix D, p. 747, and below, note to title), 18652 (considerably shortened, and with no section numbers), 1868, 1888. Our text is 1855. The fair-copy MS (5 pp.) used by the printer is in Morgan (MA 930); the MS title is ‘A Last Word. | To E. B. B.’ but the change must have been made at an early stage, since it is not rec. in H proof. Texas has a marked-up copy of 1865 intended for 18652, together with a proof of 18652, with no significant variants. We give a complete collation of all MS variants, including del. readings where recoverable. The poem posed B. particular problems, both with regard to its inclusion in a volume of selections, and more generally with regard to revision carried out after EBB.’s death.
