"I'm Nobody! Who Are You? Are you nobody, too?" Emily Dickinson poem recited by high school students

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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 banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong June
To an admiring bog!

This poem makes fun of any person who brags about being important--the arrogant person who is a self-appointed "somebody.” Some people are too full of themselves, and their boasting is like the ugly sound of frogs croaking in a swamp (bog).

When you are a roomful of people who brag, you risk feeling like you might be kicked out for not being “good enough.” Ridiculous.

It is better to stay silent about one’s skills and accomplishments--to be a “nobody” (but keep quiet about being a "nobody" or they’ll kick you out!).

The poem’s speaker is saying, “I don’t want to be like that braggart.
I’ll be the opposite.” I’ll be a nobody and be secretly proud of it! That will make the opposite of that person who says loudly that she is “somebody.”

The poem’s speaker is looking for kindred spirits, asking others in the room who are quiet, “Are you nobody, too?” The speaker’s attitude is this: “Good! We can be friends! Let’s stay away from people who brag. They always talk about their great achievements--no, they croak about them. They sound like ugly frogs when they brag.”

One irony is that the poem’s speaker is in fact “somebody”--or at least Emily Dickinson did something worth bragging about. The poem’s speaker created a wonderful poem!

It is satire. It is funny, using humor to criticize people who brag.

The poems of Emily Dickinson have variations since she did not oversee publication.

When the poems were published after her death in batches at a time--decades would pass before all the poems would appear--different editors made changes to her text. They believed they were making necessary improvements. The original texts (which were very difficult to copy for publication due to Dickinson's illegible handwriting) seemed weird or "off" to these early editors.

Her poems became popular despite these changes or because of the changes. Or the changes made no difference?

Anyway, I like to know the different versions. The poems lack proper titles. Dickinson did not provide titles, so publishers adopt each poem's opening line as the poem's title.

HERE ARE OTHER VERSIONS:

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 June -
To an admiring Bog!
______________________________________

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!





"I'm Nobody! Who Are You? Are you nobody, too?" Emily Dickinson poem recited by high school students