Yesterday I shared Dickinson’s poem “The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants.” There are variations of the poem in the different editions of Dickinson’s poetry – mainly having to do with alternate spellings, capitalization, and punctuation (even with the size of her dashes) – but the variants are not drastically dissimilar. However – and I’m going to go out on a limb here – I think they all include an incorrect word – based on a misreading of Dickinson's handwriting.
First, when one searches for “mushroom” on the online Dickinson archive, ten entries pop up representing two poems. Eight of the entries center on “The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants.”
Typically, when available, each entry will include digital images of the original manuscripts associated with that entry. Here’s how all of that breaks down for these eight entries
Entry 1: This is for the version of the poem edited by Mabel Loomis Todd and published in the 1891 “Series Two” of “Emily Dickinson’s Poems.” No manuscript is provided for this entry.
Entry 1: This is for the version of the poem edited by Mabel Loomis Todd and published in the 1891 “Series Two” of “Emily Dickinson’s Poems.” No manuscript is provided for this entry.
| Entry 2: This is from Franklin’s 1998 Variorum edition, and the manuscript on the entry shows a portion of a letter Dickinson wrote to Thomas Wentworth Higginson. The text reads as follows – and note that it includes a variation of the fourth stanza from the poem:  |  |
The complete letter can be found HERE.
Entry 3: The manuscript shown here is a letter from Dickinson’s cousin, Frances Norcross, to Thomas Wentworth Higginson:
"I am impelled to send to you my cousin’s poem on the mushroom and also this gem about a spider. I remember you said you had never seen the first, and as I was reading it to a friend yesterday I was…I was so much impressed with its weirdness and originality, that I felt that you ought to see it at once. The other is certainly one of the daintiest she ever wrote.”
Entry 3: The manuscript shown here is a letter from Dickinson’s cousin, Frances Norcross, to Thomas Wentworth Higginson:
"I am impelled to send to you my cousin’s poem on the mushroom and also this gem about a spider. I remember you said you had never seen the first, and as I was reading it to a friend yesterday I was…I was so much impressed with its weirdness and originality, that I felt that you ought to see it at once. The other is certainly one of the daintiest she ever wrote.”
 She included the two poems, but they – or at least the one about the mushroom – has been lost – so we do not know exactly how that version read. Entry 4: The manuscript here is just a scrap of paper with a variation of the poems’ second stanza. It also includes the words “alien place” and “covert place” – perhaps for an image that never made it into the poem? |  |
Entry 5: The manuscript here is a scrap of paper (part of an envelope?) that reads as follows:
“The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants - At evening it is not - At morning - in a Truffled Hut It stop opon a spot As if it tarried always And yet it's whole career Is shorter than a snake's delay And fleeter than a t (or +?) tare –”
“The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants - At evening it is not - At morning - in a Truffled Hut It stop opon a spot As if it tarried always And yet it's whole career Is shorter than a snake's delay And fleeter than a t (or +?) tare –”
 | Entry 6: This entry includes a manuscript with the entire poem – but take a look at that last page. It looks like Dickinson had written the poem as a four-stanza poem, but then later added an additional stanza. The final stanza shown on the manuscript is the fourth stanza in the poem – and what was the fourth stanza became the fifth.  |
Entry 7: No image of a manuscript accompanies this entry.
Entry 8: This entry includes Frances Norcross’ letter to Higginson provided in the third entry.
Sooo…having reviewed all of this, I’ll share tomorrow a mistake I think editors have made concerning a particular word in this poem.
Entry 8: This entry includes Frances Norcross’ letter to Higginson provided in the third entry.
Sooo…having reviewed all of this, I’ll share tomorrow a mistake I think editors have made concerning a particular word in this poem.
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