Investigating Dickinson's Poetry

"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’m Nobody! Who are you?” is an example of one of Dickinson’s more comical poems, yet the poem's purpose was for more than pleasure. Containing a biting satire of the public sphere, both of the public figures who benefit from it, and all of the people who allow them to. Dickinson’s light tone, childish voice, and invitation to the reader to be on her side, keeps a friendly feeling to the poem. Dickinson attacked the public and their lack of individuality with her reference to "somebodies" and "nobodies" within the poem. The speaker fears that even telling anyone that there is now “a pair of us,” that is, nobodies, outsiders, will lead to their very identities being advertised, and thus taken from them, for they will no longer be able to be the anonymous, free-thinking nobodies that they have chosen to be. Emily discusses the idea of loneliness and distance from the public mass, in both a negative and positive way. Similar to Smith's poem "To Night", Dickinson speaks of anxiety and distress and a dire need for individuality. In continuation to my last post, Emily Dickinson was brought up in a vicinity of highly religious beliefs that were incorportated in much of her poetry. After recently analyzing Charlotte Smith's sonnet "To Night" I noticed that she too included some religous references in her works as well. In "To Night" the last lines are suggestive to a prayer: “While to the winds and waves its sorrows given, / May reach – though lost on earth – the ear of Heaven!” When someone has lost all hope in their life, they pray, hoping that their prayer reaches the ears of God, and thus “the ear of Heaven!” So not only does the sonnet “To Night” deal with the self and imagination, but it also has a subtle dealing with religion. Finding peace and serenity alone reflects a major romantic theme of self and imagination through time spent with nature. The reference to prayer and connection has interested me to further research poetry by Dickinson and Smith discussing an importance of prayer and mediation in order to revive and renew one's soul.

Citation:
"'I'm Nobody! Who are you?'" The Literature Network. N.p., 2012. Web. 21 Apr.
2012.
http://www.online-literature.com/dickinson/448/