Crescent Rolls?

In tribute to the 138th anniversary of Emily Dickinson’s death (on May 15), I’m posting ten of my favorite ED poems about death and grief.  Earlier I posted “Back from the cordial grave I drag thee,” followed by a few posts related to the poem, and today I’m ready to move on to the second of my ten poems, “She laid her docile Crescent down,” a poem which Dickinson referred to as “an Epitaph” about the words and images on an aging tombstone.

There are several extant versions of this poem, each with minor changes in the language, and in 1877 she included one version in a letter to her mentor, Thomas Wentworth Higginson and a slightly different version in a letter to her friend Elizabeth Holland.  

NOTE:  In the versions shown below, I added the CAPS.

When she sent this poem to Ms. Holland, Dickinson pasted newspaper clippings to the paper – one of a star and crescent and one of leaning tombstones.

Thomas Johnson’s notes about this poem sent to Ms. Holland: can be found HERE.
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Of course, poetry is open to many interpretations, and one (obviously silly) reading of the poem I found  – linked below – starts like this:  “This poem is about a girl who buys a crescent roll for brekfest (sic), and then puts it down so she can throw rocks at her car mechanic, who forgot the date that her car was supposed to be fixed by. 

The writer's complete comments can be found HERE.