Emily Dickinson`s “I`m Nobody! Who are you?”

An opinion essay by Amy Li Lehan

When I first read the poem, I didn't fully understand what the poem was trying to say. It was a very short poem with a lot of dashes. I searched online for the author's life; then I understood the meaning and the theme.

The core of the poem is nobody and somebody. Nobody and somebody are two opposing sides. Because most people aspire to be upwardly mobile, and some want to be well-known. The idea of this poem is the opposite of the secular idea.

In the poem’s first stanza, the author seems to be hoping to find someone who resembles her but does not want to be found. In the poem’s second stanza, those who have become great are likened to frogs. They are beckoning and howling all day long, flaunting their names all the time, probably to convey that these people are not modest and very arrogant. When they have a minor achievement, they flaunt it everywhere. The author does not like these types of people.

The poem is closely related to Dickinson’s life and trait. She lived in a small, isolated town from the age of twenty-five and wrote poetry in solitude. The opening paragraph mentions that I didn't understand the implications when I first read it. So it is easy to understand the poem from her point of view against this background.