18 pages • 36 minutes read
Emily DickinsonI'm Nobody! Who Are You?
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1891A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Literary Context
“I’m Nobody! Who Are You?” falls in line with what readers have come to expect about Dickinson’s poetic style. For example, the title comes from the first line of the poem, which editors added later; Dickinson did not title her poems. It was also quite common during Dickinson’s time to write in meter for poetry and lyrics, particularly in alternating syllables of six to eight per line and using iambs (an unstressed/stressed syllabic pattern), which Dickinson does in this poem. Dickinson regularly wrote in first-person with a speaker who sometimes did represent her and other times did not. In “I’m Nobody! Who Are You?” it is likely she was representing herself and her feelings in celebration of anonymity. On the other hand, perhaps the “I” does not represent her, as she could be satirizing the sentimental poets of her time who praised the heavens and completely downplayed their human role in all of it.
Dickinson’s regular use of dashes (not a choice her friend and literary critic Thomas Wentworth would recommend) rather than a period or a comma, and her capitalization of words within the poem, have become typical of her work and are found in this poem as well. Some of these influences can be seen in Shakespeare’s works, whom she greatly admired, including his untitled sonnets and his use of verse in plays, often iambic pentameter, though she often used trimeter and tetrameter (various terms that refer to the varying number of patterns of unstressed/stressed syllables in a line of poetry). As shown in this poem and many others, Dickinson followed a pattern that was based on conventional methods or influences, but also she was not afraid to try other techniques and make them her own.
Autobiographical Context
The autobiographical elements of the poem are worth noting, especially the speaker’s desire to form a pair in the third line. Dickinson’s first confidante and mentor for her works was her sister-in-law Susan Gilbert. In one of her 1882 letters, Dickinson writes, “With the exception of Shakespeare, you have told me of more knowledge than any one living” (Dickinson, Emily. "Letter." Dickinson Electronic Archives). Later, her friendship with Samuel Bowles, editor-in-chief of the Springfield Republican, began with a meeting and continued with letters, 50 of which have survived, and 40 poems she sent to him during a challenging time in her life. Although seven poems were eventually published in his newspaper, Bowles did not facilitate that, as none of the poems he received from Dickinson were the ones published. It is unclear to this day how the publishing of her pieces came to be. The poems were published anonymously, which goes back to “I’m Nobody! Who Are You?” in which Dickinson seems to prefer anonymity, but she does not want to be completely alone.
Another person who could be part of her pair was also in the literary business, which leads to speculation of whether Dickinson did crave some fame in the form of publishing; at the very least, she wanted an audience. Thomas Wentworth Higginson wrote a piece titled “Letter to a Young Contributor” in The Atlantic in 1862 to would-be writers, including Dickinson, who immediately wrote to him with several pieces and asked, “Are you too deeply occupied to say if my verse is alive?” This was followed up by almost 25 years of correspondence that started to wane in formality as Dickinson stopped signing her name on a card she placed inside the envelope, and she only wrote her signature as ”Dickinson.” These aspects show the anonymity she celebrates in the poem. Dickinson became more reclusive throughout her life, but with her letter writing and poetry sharing, she was not entirely alone. She was so well-known, at least to a select group, that she could be a single name; now the single name is well-known to people across the globe.
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By Emily Dickinson
