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Susan Smith
Mrs. M. M. Brown
English 9R, Block 1 A/C
May 7, 2007
The Author and Her Work:
Emily Dickinson
Very few of us are famous. We can go about our lives
without the constant fear of paparazzi documenting our
every move and having it show up in the tabloids. To many,
the idea of being famous is enticing and sought after, to
others—like the poet Emily Dickinson—it was something to be
avoided. In her poem “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” Emily
Dickinson presents the happiness of being one of the
“common folk.”
Biographical Sketch: The Need for Privacy
Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830 into an uppermiddle-class family in Amherst, Massachusetts where she was
raised and educated somewhat beyond the fashion of the
times(Loving 2). Having been extremely shy as a child, the
young Dickinson grew increasingly uncomfortable around
strangers and acquaintances. By age forty, Dickinson
retreated almost entirely from society, rarely leaving her
home(Bolin 6). Those who knew her well, however, knew that
she loved to write. She would sometimes share her poems
with her most trusted friends and family, in particular her
sister-in-law, Sue Dickinson, with whom Ferlazzo reports
she shared over 300 of her poems and to whom Bolin reports
that she would send a note and often a poem “almost every
evening”(10,14). This friendship, however, suffered
permanent damage when Sue submitted one of Dickinson’s
poems for publication to The Springfield Republican, the
local newspaper. The author viewed the publishing of her
poem as a betrayal of her privacy and the relationship was
never close thereafter (Ferlazzo 1).
Dickinson’s great desire for privacy appears unmitigated
even to the end of her life. Preceding her death at age
fifty-five, she requested that her sister Lavinia destroy
all of her writing rather than have it ever be made public.
According to Prentice Hall Literature Gold, Dickinson’s
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poems numbered at least 1,775 (254). Overwhelmed by both
the extensive number of the poems as well as their beauty,
Lavinia chose instead to make her sister’s work public
(Ferlazzo 12).
Poem Analysis
“I’m Nobody!
Who are you?”
I’m nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there’s a pair of us—don’t tell!
They’d banish us, you know.
How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!
The poem “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” presents a narrator
who enjoys being a “nobody” in a world where being
“somebody” is viewed as desirable and important.
In the first stanza, the author seems to announce
proudly that she is a “nobody!” The use of the exclamation
point suggests strong feeling and pride in this
declaration. Others, however must not share this point of
view as reflected in lines 2-4 where the narrator states,
“Are you a nobody, too?/Then there’s a pair of us—don’t
tell!/They’d banish us you know.” The idea that one would
be ostracized or “banished” for being a “nobody” suggests
that is goes against the culture. It is something to hide.
The second stanza of the poem develops the idea of the
poem further by contrasting what it would be like to be a
“somebody.” The narrator states “How dreary to be
somebody!/ How public, like a frog.” These lines suggest
that life would be miserable if one had to live it out in
the public eye, always under scrutiny, never with any
privacy, constantly talking about oneself. This life of
being a “somebody” is clearly not for the narrator. She
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guards her status as a “nobody” and enjoys the privacy that
it gives her.
Many people wish for fame. Publications such as People
Magazine enjoy a wide readership, and there are lines of
hopefuls who want to be the new “American Idol.” However,
those who achieve fame find their lives to be an open book,
constantly the topic for the gossip columns. I wonder how
many of those who achieve this kind of fame are envious of
those of us who do not.
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Works Cited
Bolin, Frances Schoonmaker, ed. Poetry for Young People
Emily Dickinson. New York: Scholastic Inc., 1994.
“Emily Dickinson.” Prentice Hall Literature Gold.
Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1989. 624.
Ferlazzo, Paul J. Emily Dickinson in Twayne’s United States
Authors Series Online. New york: G. K. Hall & Co.,
1999. Previously published in print in 1976 by Twayne
Publishers. Online. May 3, 2007.
Loving, Jerome. “Dickinson, Emily.” World Book Online
Reference Center, 2007. North Syracuse Junior High
Library. May 3, 2007.
<http://www.worldbookonline.com/wb/Article?id=ar158160.