I Haven't Got a Clew

Let’s start the morning with a spelling test.  Well, actually, a reading test.  

​Let’s pretend that you are Mabel Loomis Todd, and you are preparing poems by Emily Dickinson for publication.  You’ve come across a poem on a loose sheet of paper, and it includes these words.  What are they?
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​If any of the words were difficult to decipher, maybe this will help.  To read the words in context, take a look at the paper with the complete poem.
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​Okay, here are the answers.  How’d you do?

​By the way, I included word #8, “clue,” to make a particular point which I’ll get to in a minute; first, though, I’d like to give credit where credit is due – and that is to Mabel Loomis Todd!  Can you imagine sifting through 1700-plus poems in Dickinson’s handwriting and attempting to make sense of them all?  

This poem, by the way, is “My Cocoon tightens – Colors tease,” a work which Todd entitled “From the Chrysalis” and published in the first posthumous edition of Dickinson’s poetry.  Here’s the poem as it appears in the various editions of Dickinson’s poetry.

At the bottom of her manuscript, Dickinson includes two alternate word choices, "degrades" for "demeans" in line 4, and "Implies" for "concedes" in line 7.  Above, you can see which edition landed on which of the words.  However, I'm a bit perplexed as to why Todd used "clew" instead of "clue" -- the word in Dickinson's handwriting in very obviously "clue."

Here’s what the Dickinson Lexicon has for “clue” – and it does not include a separate entry for “clew”:

Here’s info from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary for "clew":
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"The 'ball of thread' meaning of clew (from Middle English clewe and ultimately from Old English cliewen) has been with us since before the 12th century. In Greek mythology, Ariadne gave a ball of thread to Theseus so that he could use it to find his way out of her father's labyrinth. This, and similar tales, gave rise to the use of clew for anything that could guide a person through a difficult place. This use led, in turn, to the meaning "a piece of evidence that leads one toward the solution of a problem." Today, the variant spelling clue, which appeared in the 17th century, is the more common spelling for the "evidence" sense, but you'll find clew in some famous works of literature. Also, clew is the only choice for the sailing senses."

Why do you think Todd went with "clew" instead of "clue"?

Oh, and before I close, let's take a look at "tease" -- or "teaze" -- in the opening line of the poem.  You'll note that Todd and Johnson spelled it as "tease," and Franklin and Miller opted for "teaze."  Here's the word as it appears in the handwritten manuscript.  What say you?