Thanks. Interesting... I had always thought it was written by Emerson having had it in printed form for more than 20 years. It appears as though it was misattributed by others originally too it seems.

To your point - that doesn't seem to contain the original version either! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessie_Anderson_Stanley list the supposed original by Stanley) It must have been both misattributed and toyed with over the years many times as you can find numerous altered versions of it widely since (usually for an Etsy print, posters, you name it)

Further reading:

- https://middleschoolpoetry180.wordpress.com/2009/09/24/55-wh...

- https://gregdodge.wordpress.com/2011/10/18/will-the-real-aut...

- https://web.archive.org/web/20110807071712/http://emerson.ta...