My Poetry Page

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 day

To an admiring bog!

I. About the Poem

The poem is composed of two quatrains, and, with an exception of the first line, the rhythm alternates between iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter. The poem employs alliteration, anaphora, simile, satire, and internal rhyme but no regular end rhyme scheme. However, lines 1 and 2 and lines 6 and 8 end with masculine rhymes. The poet incorporates the pronouns you, we, us, your into the poem, and in doing so, draws the reader into the piece. The poem suggests anonymity is preferable to fame. It was first published in 1891 in Poems, Series 2, a collection of Dickinson’s poems assembled and edited by Mabel Loomis Todd and Thomas Wentworth Higginson.

Works Cited （参考文献）

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_Nobody!_Who_are_you%3F

II. About the Poet.

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, on December 10, 1830 to Edward and Emily (Norcross) Dickinson. At the time of her birth, Emily’s father was an ambitious young lawyer. Educated at Amherst and Yale, he returned to his hometown and joined the ailing law practice of his father, Samuel Fowler Dickinson. Edward also joined his father in the family home, the Homestead, built by Samuel Dickinson in 1813. Active in the Whig Party, Edward Dickinson was elected to the Massachusetts State Legislature (1837-1839) and the Massachusetts State Senate (1842-1843). Between 1852 and 1855 he served a single term as a representative from Massachusetts to the U.S. Congress. In Amherst he presented himself as a model citizen and prided himself on his civic work—treasurer of Amherst College, supporter of Amherst Academy, secretary to the Fire Society, and chairman of the annual Cattle Show. Comparatively little is known of Emily’s mother, who is often represented as the passive wife of a domineering husband. Her few surviving letters suggest a different picture, as does the scant information about her early education at Monson Academy. Academy papers and records discovered by Martha Ackmann reveal a young woman dedicated to her studies, particularly in the sciences.

Works Cited （参考文献）

"Emily Dickinson." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2016. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/emily-dickinson>.

III. My Reaction

A. Reaction Point - charactar(登場人物)
 

This poem is structured by a girl and another people.
But We can read only a girl part. 
We must imagination about that another people said.

B. Reaction Point-alliteration(頭韻)

Emily Dickinson　uses alliteration.

 

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!

 

She uses repetition of initial consonant sounds.

C. Reaction Point-structure(詩の組織のパターン)

This poem is structured of short sentence.
This is prose. (韻文に対して散文)

D. My General Opinion

This Poem say "I'm nobody!" in first half. But It say "How dreary to be somebody!" ,

I thougt she wanna be somebody. But she said 「don't tell!

They'd banish us」 She doesn't believe other people.

This poem is shot sentence, so I thought " It is easy for me" when I read this the first time .
But content was very difficult for me.

I shoud more study about the poem and author.