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Houghton Library - (147) Knows how to forget! J433, Fr391

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Credits: Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Dickinson, Emily, 1830-1886. Poems: Packet XXVII, Fascicle 19. Includes 13 poems, written in ink, ca. 1862. Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
Houghton Library - (147) Knows how to forget! J433, Fr391
Publication History
The version in Fascicle 19 (A) was published in BM (1945), 305, as four quatrains, among the poems incomplete or unfinished, from a transcript of A (a tr757b). The version in Set 7 (B) was published in BM (1945), 116-17. Poems (1955), 335-37 (A principal, B principal); CP (1960), 207-8 (B). MB (1981), 425 (A) and 1220-21 (B), in facsimile. (J433). Franklin Variorum 1998 (F391A).
-History from Franklin Variorum 1998

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Imported: 2013-10-21 13:01:10 -0400
Order: 15
Order Label
Label: (147) Knows how to forget! J433, Fr391
Filename: ms_am_1118_3_147_0001

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J433 - Knows how to forget!

Knows how to forget!
But -- could she teach -- it?
'Tis the Art, most of all,
I should like to know --

Long, at it's Greek --
I -- who pored -- patient --
Rise -- still the Dunce --
Gods used to know --

Mould my slow mind to this Comprehension --
Oddest of sciences -- Book ever bore --

How to forget!
Ah, to attain it --
I would give you --
All other Lore --
earlier version

Knows how to forget!
But could It teach it?
Easiest of Arts, they say
When one learn how

Dull Hearts have died
In the Acquisition
Sacrifice for Science
Is common, though, now --

I went to School
But was not wiser
Globe did not teach it
Nor Logarithm Show

"How to forget"!
Say -- some -- Philosopher!
Ah, to be erudite
Enough to know!

Is it in a Book?
So, I could buy it --
Is it like a Planet?
Telescopes would know --

If it be invention
It must have a Patent.
Rabbi of the Wise Book
Dont you know?

later version

About Work

First Line/Title: Knows how to forget!
Date: 1862
Edition: Johnson Poems 1955
Number: J433

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Work Metadata

Year: 1862
Manuscript: Manuscripts: There are two. The earlier version, written about 1862, is in packet 27 (H 147). The later version, written about 1865, is in packet 90 (Bingham 63b). Both versions are fair copies of completed poems.
Publications: Publication: The earlier version is in BM (1945), 305, among unfinished poems. It reproduces a transcript made by a copyist for Mrs. Todd in the late 1880's of the copy in packet 27. The third stanza is printed as a quatrain. Three words are altered: 8.Gods] God 14. Lore] love 10.bore] con The later version is in BM, 116-117. It reproduces the text of the copy in packet 90.

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Related Works in Other Editions

F391A - Knows how to forget!

The Poems of Emily Dickinson, Variorum Edition, Franklin, 1998