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!
|
As you probably noticed when you read this poem, none of the themes that I discussed in the Overview of
Dickinson applies to this poem. That list was not meant to cover every topic Dickinson wrote on, nor does
every poem she wrote fit neatly into a category.
Dickinson adopts the persona of a child who is open, naive, and innocent. However, are the
questions asked and the final statement made by this poem naive? If they are not, then the poem is ironic because of the discrepancy between the persona's
understanding and view and those of Dickinson and the reader. Under the guise of the child's accepting
society's values, is Dickinson really rejecting those values?
Is Dickinson suggesting that the true somebody is really the nobody? The child-speaker welcomes
the person who honestly identifies herself and who has a true identity. These qualities make that person "nobody"
in society's eyes. To be "somebody" is to have status in society; society, the majority,
excludes or rejects those who lack status or are "nobody"--"they'd banish us" for being nobody.
In stanza 2, the child-speaker rejects the role of "somebody" ("How dreary"). The frog comparison
depicts "somebody" as self-important and constantly self-promoting. She also shows the false values of
a society (the "admiring bog") which approves the frog-somebody. Does the word "bog" (it means wet,
spongy ground) have positive or negative connotations?
What qualities are associated with the sounds a frog makes (croaking)?
Is there satire in this poem?
Some readers, who are modest and self-effacing or who lack confidence, feel validated by this
poem. Why?
|
