Dickinson's "A Spider sewed at Night"

Below are four printed versions of this poem, arranged in chronological order. For a discussion of Dickinson's composition process, see the Dickinson composition page.


1891 Poems version (edited by T.W. Higginson & Mary Loomis Todd)

XXVII.
THE SPIDER.

A spider sewed at night
Without a light
Upon an arc of white.
If ruff it was of dame
Or shroud of gnome,
Himself, himself inform.
Of immortality
His strategy
Was physiognomy.




1960 version from The Complete Poems (edited by Thomas H. Johnson)

1138

A Spider sewed at Night
Without a Light
Upon an Arc of White.

If Ruff it was of Dame
Or Shroud of Gnome
Himself himself inform.

Of Immortality
His Strategy
Was Physiognomy.




1998 version from The Variorum Edition (edited by R.W. Franklin)

1163 A spider sewed at night

A Spider sewed at Night
Without a Light
Opon an arc of White –

If Ruff it was of Dame
Or Shroud of Gnome
Himself himself inform –

Of Immortality
His strategy
Was Physiognomy –




1998 version from Open Me Carefully (edited by Ellen Louise Hart and Martha Nell Smith)

141

A Spider sewed
at Night
Without a Light
Upon an arc of
White.

If Ruff it was
of Dame
Or Shroud of Gnome
Himself himself
inform '

Of Immortality
His strategy
Was Physiognomy.

        Emily.