I'm Nobody! Who are you? (288) by Emily Dickinson

Full Text

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!

Overview

Dickinson's manifesto against fame. Being "Somebody" means croaking your name like a frog to a bog—public, repetitive, undiscriminating. Being "Nobody" is a secret club of two. The poem delights in anonymity as resistance: publication ("they'd advertise") is exposure to be avoided.

Line-by-Line Analysis

Lines 1-4

"I'm Nobody" is declaration, not lament. Finding another Nobody creates conspiracy. "Don't tell!"—visibility is the threat.

Lines 5-8

"Public – like a Frog" is brilliantly dismissive. The frog's audience is a bog—admiring but mindless. Fame is performance for swamp.

Themes

• Anonymity as freedom
• Fame as degradation
• Conspiracy of the obscure
• Public versus private self

Literary Devices

Simile

"public – like a Frog" — Fame reduced to amphibian croaking—repetitive, loud, desperate for attention.

Exclamation

"I'm Nobody!" — The exclamation point makes obscurity triumphant, not pathetic.

Historical Context

Dickinson published only about ten poems during her lifetime, all anonymously. This poem explains why: publication meant losing control, becoming "Somebody" croaking to a bog. She preferred manuscript circulation to friends—selective, private, controlled.