BLOG #2

 

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 one’s name – the livelong June –

To an admiring Bog!

 

Emily Dickinson is my absolute favorite poet!  She is the one who made me start to appreciate poetry and also made me not be “afraid” of it.  I can seriously read her poetry all day!  I love how her poetry reflects how women were treated in the late 1800s. Specifically, the poetry reflects her very own life. Many times Emily Dickinson wrote about how she feels and her opinion on certain aspects of life.

One of my favorite poem from Emily Dickinson is “I’m nobody! Who are you?” This poem relates back to how women were not seen as individuals but just as objects in society. She talks about the way society views one another and that you were lucky if you could live up to society’s standards. 

In the very first line Emily Dickinson starts her poem off as “I’m nobody!” Emily Dickinson’s meaning of “I’m nobody!” is that women are neglected and society does not treat women as equals. She believes that she has no place in the world then just as what women were stereotyped to be. Women were stereotyped as having to take care of all the household chores, the children and also her husband. The husband or the man owned the wives- the women and they had no say in anything. Emily Dickinson was saying as if she was “nobody” because she really was not, nor was any other lady. 

“Who are you? Are you- Nobody- too?” presents the idea as if the poem is comedic. She is mocking society by asking you as the reader who you are in society. Emily Dickinson is comparing herself to the other women in America by asking the question “Are you- Nobody- too?” Emily Dickinson is writing as if she is happy that she is a “nobody”, that she is free from society. Also as if she is trying to find other people “friends” that feel the same as she did about this idea of individualism.

She describes how terrible it is to conform to the way society wants you to be. “Don’t tell! They’d advertise- you know!” By stating the verse “They’d advertise- you know” proves the fact that if you are somebody you are just like everyone else. That in society they will point the women out because she will be stepping out of the role of a traditional woman. The society will banish them as a person and make them conform to what society wants, making them someone they are not. Stepping out of this role would make the women be a non- conformist and that is not what women did in the late 1800s. So it was either to be someone in society; be the same as everyone else or be you and just be nobody in the American society, but at the same time be an individual.

Emily Dickinson uses the simile of relating the public to a frog. “ How public- like a frog” She once again is mocking the way society is. She is comparing the general public as frogs. As we know frogs croak very load the same thing over and over again. Frogs also always look the same and are slimy and unpleasant to touch. Emily Dickinson is referring to the public as just repeating their names over and over again not really having any importance.  Just as the women in society. She is stating that the public just wants to be known and liked, but not known as an individual with their own thoughts but just as a whole. The public does not care if they are all the same or if they are all conformist and only act as the way society wants them to. As a frog they are worthless and just take up space and do not really have any importance to society. Relating that back to the traditional roles of women in the 1800s.  Emily Dickinson is against conforming as one and that’s where the description of slimy and unpleasant to touch comes in.

She is linking the two words bog and frog together by the theme of them both being gross and unpleasant. Frogs live in swamps as a whole and a bog is the meaning of a swamp. So, if you want to be in society you’re just like everyone else. But if you stay as your own person you will just see how society is treating people.

            So when Emily Dickinson says “ How dreary- to be- somebody!” she is trying to make a point that if you conform in the end you’re going to want to be the person you were before. That the idea of being known in society is more prestigious then actually being known. Once society knows who you are, you’ll have to conform to the way they see women. You will not be able to be an individual nor have your own ideas or beliefs.

            Women in the late 1800s are not seen as individuals in society. Women are considered  “nobody’s” unless they decide not to conform to the way society sees them. Emily Dickinson believes that everyone that conforms in society does not have their own identities but in fact they are like “frogs” and just say the same thing as the person in front of them. Emily Dickinson states that it is better to stand as your own person and have your own beliefs and be a “nobody” in society. In a way she is saying that being nobody is actually being someone. Being nobody is making someone be an individual.

In today’s society we still suffer from the norms of society.  I think that everyone should read this poem just to remind themselves that they are their own person and DO NOT have to be anyone but themselves!