"I'm Nobody! Who are You?"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!

Analysis/Comment

In this "conversational" with a silent response, the poet is glad not to be identified by the vague world. In fact, the speaker while talking to someone else, refers to how being a "nobody" is better than being somebody in the world. This is because, being somebody in the society, life could be too public.

There are some metaphors and a similarity present in the entire poem. For example, "Somebody" is compared to "frog" (Line 2; S. 2) when he/she is exposed to the public.

This poem is a loos iambic trimester with a fourth stress (i.e. "To tell your name--the livelong June--" Line 3; S. 2) with a rhyme scheme ABCB (though in the 1^st stanza, it is actually considered as a half-rhyme, hence, AABC). The usage of dashes is a typical sign Emily Dickinson; she utilizes in her poems for rhythm and emotions.

In real life, people usually admire celebrity's lives. There's always envy on happy life due to money and luxurious and expensive things. Although on television, famous people appear to have a smiles on their faces, it does not mean that they are fully enjoying their lives. Indeed, a lot of the celebrities actually prefer loosing their fame to become normal. This happens because a "Somebody" 's life can be much more complicated and intruded by strangers and enemies, what is worse is that they no longer have privacy.

Links

http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/dickinson/section3.rhtml