Introduction
The poem is ” I’m Nobody! Who are you?? Emily Dickinson conveys that she considers herself merely human and does not care about social status. Meanwhile, Dickinson also questions the readers: Who are you?
In the second stanza, she answers that if the readers are nobody too, then they both can have a good friendship. The author represents that friendship should not be based on social status; a friend needs to seek public attention.
In the beginning of the poem, Emily Dickinson asks a question and develops the central idea of the poem. The speaker or author does not want to be a famous and popular figure. She also expects that the reader may also be against aimless and temporary public recognition. Then Dickinson happily says”, Then there’s a pair of us!” The word pair points to the companion of the people who do not like social obsession with fame, and they reject any such attention.
In the second stanza of the poem “I’m Nobody! Who are you?,
“Who are you?” creates two choices for readers: either to be nobody or somebody. The speaker replaces the word ” Nobody ” with Somebody to show contrast. She asks, “How dreary to be Somebody!” The speaker uses the word somebody to represent popularity or fame; however, she considers it more depressing than desirable. Because the latter word, dreary, representssomething epressing, lifeless or even gloomy. Emily Dickinson feels social reputation and popularity like a cage.
In the last line of the first stanza, the speaker says not to disclose their identity; if society knew them, society might turn them into public figures. “Don’t tell! they’d advertise – you know!” Here, the word advertise suggests that reputation and fame can display them for others to observe. The speaker rejects social status and considers it mere boredom.
In the next line, Dickinson uses the metaphor of a famous person and a frog to illustrate this concept. The frog makes itself heard frequently by croaking. In the same way, the individual seeking fame has to keep announcing himself.T he concept of “an admiring bog” is particularly amusing. The frog is amusing the bog, much like a famous person amuses an audience. It suggests that the ceaseless pursuit of admiration is somewhat foolish and empty.
The core idea of this poem is that someone’s privacy and individuality are much more significant than reputation. The author criticises the popular belief that it is necessary to become “a Somebody or to be popular. By doing that, she ironically emphasises the freedom of being an individual.
Conclusion
In this poem, Emily Dickinson conveys the message that being Nobody is not a problem. She challenges the traditional as well as modern belief that it is necessary to be somebody. Whereas the poet changes the term “nobody” from something that is abusive in nature to a term which can stand alone as well. The theme of the poem shows us that being a nobody is equivalent to being nothing; one becomes a nobody only when he wants to be.
In search of popularity, people lose their originality and become arrogant to the common people who consider them nobody rather than somebody. Somebody constantly struggles to remain in the public domain, for he/she becomes habitual.
In short
“I’m Nobody! Who are you?, is a beautiful poem to make readers aware of their originality rather than achieving or being of fake reputation or fame.