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 advertise – you know!
How dreary – to be – Somebody!
How public – like a Frog –
To tell your name – the livelong June –
To an admiring Bog!

Synopsis

Emily Dickinson’s “I’m Nobody! Who are You?” opens with a playful riddle. How can someone who calls herself “Nobody” speak, narrate a poem, and even address the reader? In this poem, “Nobody” seems less like a literal lack of identity and more like a label imposed by others. It may even suggest an unspoken extension—Nobody Important, Nobody Famous, or Nobody Notorious. The speaker delights in this quiet, hidden status, setting it against the noisy world of “Somebodies,” whom she likens to frogs croaking endlessly for attention before their adoring, marsh-bound audience.