Mabel Loomis Todd published the first collection of Dickinson’s poems in November of 1890. In December that year, a glowing review in The Christian Register ended with this statement:
“There are words ‘so full of subtile flame,’ (sic) phrases so packed with strangeness, force, suggestion, poems so tremulous with tenderness or so bent under the burden of their mystery, that they shock us with almost intolerable delight or awe.”
Todd did a bit of digging to discover that the notice had been written by Reverend John. W. Chadwick. She wrote to confirm that it was he who had penned the review, and Chadwick wrote back.
“Yes, I wrote the notice in the Register& I know of one man who on the strength of it bought two copies right away & I hope many were affected by it in a similar manner. Since writing the notice I have read all the poems two or three times over with greatening pleasure each new time. I have exchanged one or two notes with Mr. Higginson about the book & he sends me a fine poem which is not in the book. "The nearest dream'...."
There at the end of his statement, Chadwick is talking about the poem “The nearest dream recedes, unrealized,” and as he said, it did not appear in the first published collection.
“There are words ‘so full of subtile flame,’ (sic) phrases so packed with strangeness, force, suggestion, poems so tremulous with tenderness or so bent under the burden of their mystery, that they shock us with almost intolerable delight or awe.”
Todd did a bit of digging to discover that the notice had been written by Reverend John. W. Chadwick. She wrote to confirm that it was he who had penned the review, and Chadwick wrote back.
“Yes, I wrote the notice in the Register& I know of one man who on the strength of it bought two copies right away & I hope many were affected by it in a similar manner. Since writing the notice I have read all the poems two or three times over with greatening pleasure each new time. I have exchanged one or two notes with Mr. Higginson about the book & he sends me a fine poem which is not in the book. "The nearest dream'...."
There at the end of his statement, Chadwick is talking about the poem “The nearest dream recedes, unrealized,” and as he said, it did not appear in the first published collection.
 | That poem surfaced again in 1891 as Todd corresponded with Thomas Wentworth Higginson about which poems to include in an upcoming second volume. Higginson had combed through works which Dickinson had sent to him enclosed in letters, and in May of that year he sent Todd a list of first lines. Todd wrote back, “I find I have a good many of those whose first lines you sent, but not all, by any means. That exquisite ‘The Nearest Dream” I do not find – which you read so thrillingly in Boston….” At some point, Higginson sent the poem to Todd, and it was, indeed, included in the second series. |
Furthermore, in October 1891, Thomas Wentworth Higginson published an article in "The Atlantic" entitled “Emily Dickinson’s Letters.” In it he shared excerpts from letters he’d received from Emily Dickinson, and he also discussed some of the poems she had sent to him over the years:
“Then came one which I have always classed among the most exquisite of her productions, with a singular felicity of phrase and an aerial lift that bears the ear upward with the bee it traces.”
That “most exquisite” poem was “The nearest dream recedes, unrealized.” I wrote about it, HERE.
Prior to publishing his article, Higginson sent a proof to Todd to review with Austin Dickinson; the two then sent back a few corrections and recommendations. They suggested printing the poem as a single thirteen-line poem, not as two stanzas, one of ten lines and one of three.
Higginson responded with this:
“Thanks for yr. criticisms — all to be adopted except that about the mocking sky & steadfast honey [in “The nearest dream recedes, unrealized”]. In my copy it’s very distinct as a second verse or detached moral. It wd. belittle it to attach it to the boy only.”
“Then came one which I have always classed among the most exquisite of her productions, with a singular felicity of phrase and an aerial lift that bears the ear upward with the bee it traces.”
That “most exquisite” poem was “The nearest dream recedes, unrealized.” I wrote about it, HERE.
Prior to publishing his article, Higginson sent a proof to Todd to review with Austin Dickinson; the two then sent back a few corrections and recommendations. They suggested printing the poem as a single thirteen-line poem, not as two stanzas, one of ten lines and one of three.
Higginson responded with this:
“Thanks for yr. criticisms — all to be adopted except that about the mocking sky & steadfast honey [in “The nearest dream recedes, unrealized”]. In my copy it’s very distinct as a second verse or detached moral. It wd. belittle it to attach it to the boy only.”
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