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This early draft, written on a torn sheet of stationery paper, includes many variants. Dickinson later sent clean copies of the poem to her sister-in-law, Susan, and friend Elizabeth Holland.
A little madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King
But God be with the Clown
Who ponders this Tremendous scene
This sudden legacy of Green
As if it were his own –
A little madness in the Spring
Poem, ca. 1875
Amherst College Archives & Special Collections