text: In 1894 he sold his first poem , `` My Butterfly : An Elegy '' ( published in the November 8 , 1894 , edition of the New York Independent ) for $ 15 .
simplified: In 1894 he sold his first poem , `` My Butterfly : An Elegy '' ( published in the November 8 , 1894 , edition of the New York Independent ) for fifteen dollars .