Critical Appreciate of the poem " I am Nobody! Who are you?" written by Emily Dickinson

         Emily Dickinson-a great American female poet represented the farthest point in the 19^th century American Poetry. American poetry in regard to the adventures of the spirit is beautifully reflected in her poetry. She had the distinction of being a pioneer of 19^th century American Poetry. She was an anticipator of metaphysical poetry, a smeller of modernity and a defender of romanticism. Conard Alken described her as,

“The most perfect flower of

New England-Transcendentalism.”

          The poem ‘I am nobody! Who are you?’ reveals the inner feeling of Dickinson. It presents the picture of a saintly recluse who defied the conventions of society and who rebelled against the tenets of formal religion. She has also presented her dislikeness of being popular and similar to somebody.

An autobiographical poem.

          Emily Dickinson’s poetry reveals every aspects of her personality. Her poems are rooted in her personal experience of joy and sorrow. John Crow Ranson remarks,

‘Dickinson is one of those poets

who make almost constant

use of the first person singular.’

          The present poem is one of autobiographical poems. By withdrawing into the privacy of her father’s room, Emily Dickinson denied herself the pleasure of life. This acts of hers is symbolic her psychic and emotional renunciation and her loss of all sense of importance of life. In an utter sense of humanity, she tells us, ‘I’m nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too?

Theme of the poem

          The main theme of poem seems to be an illustration of Emily Dickinson’s self-exile into a private world of her own. The result of her imposed exile was that she remained insignificant during her life-time. There is a touch of satire in the poem. Public life is dreary and cramped. It is like the life of a frog which tells its name all the time to the boggy land where it lives.  In this way, Dickinson likes to be recluse. She rejects name as well as rejects fame. This motto of her spiritual withdrawal is the central idea of the poem.

Critical Appreciation of the poem

          The poem is small having two stanzas of four lines. In first stanza, companionship between poet and listener is established. She says in the first line,

I am Nobody! Who are you?

Are you nobody, too?

Then there’s a pair of us.

          Here the poetess says to her friends that she is insignificant and minor person. If listener is nobody, there is pair of their friendship. Two become a pair. But the poet knows the society. That’s why the friendship should be kept secret. She asks her friend not to tell anybody. Privacy is stressed. As soon as it would be revealed, people would start talking and it may harm their friendship. This is the way of society and her friend perhaps knows that they would punish them.

          In the second stanza, Emily she tells about her dislikeness of being similar to one. She thinks that to be like other is awful and unpleasant. To be somebody is boring and tedious. To be in public is hated by the poet.  According to her, it is really hateful to get name and to be talked in public. She compares it with a frog and says,

How dreary is to be somebody!

How public, like a frog

          This is a habit of frog which sings and sings but has no value. In the so called modern society, to remember and talk about known people may be a fashion. One talks the full ‘livelong’ day. Thus in reality this appreciation does nothing for enhancement of life so it is labeled as ‘an admiring bog.’

          In this ways, the poetess reveals content to be ‘nobody’ rather than ‘somebody’ in the world of poetry. Her attitude toward fame has been firmly defended as knowing her deep-seated integrity and self-knowledge. After writing this poem, within few days, Emily wrote to Higginson in a letter:  

“If fame belonged to me, I could

not escape her. If she did not, the

longest day would pass me on her chase.”

Poetic Quality

As far as poetic style is concerned, the poem is well- arranged piece which shows Emily’s spontaneity and directness. We find lucidity and directness in the poem. The poem consists of two stanzas. Each has four lines. The poem begins with ‘I’. From ‘I’ the poet comes to ‘us’ and shows the process of being one two and one. In the poem, Simplicity is achieved by clear cut, short, simple sentences. e.g.  

1. I’m nobody!  2. Who are you? 3. Are you nobody, too? 4.  There’s a pair of us

5. Don’t tell.      6. They’d advertise 7. You know.

          In an eight line poem question mark has been used twice and four times exclamatory mark. Two adjectives’ livelong for day’ and admiring for ‘bog’ are attractive. The poet created sound pattern through alliteration and repetition of words.

I’m nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too?(Repetition of ‘ are’, ‘nobody’, and ‘you’)

Then There’s a pair of us-don’t tell! (Alliteration

Conclusion

          To summing up, the poem is a confessional document of the eccentricities of poetess’s mind. The poem has a cardinal note on Emily’s self negation which reveals a record of her reactions to some unnamed events in life. It reveals sober personality with admirable maturity of wisdom. In a short, this personal poem reveals that her understating of life is complete and thorough as Allan Tate observes,

“Emily Dickinson mastered

life’s intricacies by rejecting it.

By revealing herself through

her poem, Emily Dickinson

understood better her own

relation to the world.”