"I'm Nobody! Who Are You?

" by Emily Dickinson

I'm nobody! Who are you?

Are you nobody, too?

Then there's a pair of us, don't tell!

They'd advertise, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!

How public, like a frog

To tell one's name the livelong day

To an admiring bog!

In this poem, I’m Nobody! Who are you?, by Emily Dickinson, the speaker directly reflects the
beliefs and feelings of the author herself. Dickinson revealed her disdain for publicity in many of
her poems. In one poem, she proclaimed that publication was “fornication of the soul” thus
equating the published poem to the sold body. In other words, she intensely believed that the
thoughts of one’s mind were meant to be kept private, or privately shared, but never sold. These
ideas come through in this poem, as well. However, this poem reveals another side of Dickinson-
the side that also wished for companionship. Although she hated the idea of publicity, Dickinson,
being still human, would have still required some form of companionship. In this poem, the
speaker seems to reveal Dickinson’s feelings about finding companionship with another person.
The speaker is excited to meet someone, but only because she believes that the person she is
meeting is “Nobody” just like herself. This reflects Dickinson’s desire to have companionship
with someone who also avoided the public eye and shared her views on the importance of
privacy. Dickinson, having lived a very reclusive life, did not seem to have many people whom
she confided in and trusted. Rather, she wrote down her thoughts in the form of hundreds of
poems which would not be published until after her death. This poem, however, reveals
Dickinson’s desire to have relationships with other people without being forced into the public
eye.

Satire

The poem satirizes glory seekers as well as their admiring fans. One wonders what Dickinson
would say about glory seekers in today's world—the movie stars, athletes, politicians, lawyers,
and others who regularly show up on television to toot their horns before admiring audiences. To
be sure, many famous people past and present deserve recognition. But there are just as many
who seek and gain recognition for trivial pursuits by croaking their names, "like a frog . . . the
livelong day."

Meter

.......Except for the first line, the poem alternates between iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter,
as the second stanza demonstrates.

Figures of Speech

Alliteration

Then there's (line 3)

They'd banish us, you know (line 4)
How dreary to be somebody (line 5)
How public, like a frog (line 6)
To tell your name the livelong day (line 7)
Anaphora
How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog (lines 5-6)
Simile
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
Comparison of the speaker's listener/reader to a frog.
Personification: to an admiring boy

Transcendentalism is a movement that developed in New England during the late 1820s and '30s.
It is consider to be one of the most monumental movements of religion, philosophy and literature
in American history.
At the core of this idea is that men and woman equally, have a knowledge about themselves and
the world around them that 'transcends' or goes beyond what they can see, hear, taste, touch or
feel.