The sonnet closes the sequence in the 1881
Baum was particularly drawn to the problem of the title, which he called “the prime difficulty” of the poem. He suggests that it refers to the vanity of the sonnet's address to inexplicable questions about death.
Four copies of the sonnet survive. The earliest seems to be a
First published in the 1881 Ballads and Sonnets
DGR Designer and Writer
House of Life