"I'm Nobody"
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 banish us--you know!

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

  1. What does it mean to say, "He's a somebody..." or "She's a nobody..."?
  2. What does the word nobody mean in this poem?
  3. How does the speaker of the poem feel about discovering another nobody?
  4. Why would "they" banish the nobodies?
  5. What does the "admiring Bog" stand for?
  6. Does the narrator like being a nobody? How can you tell? Use words from the poem to back up what you say.
  7. Paraphrase (put into your own words) the poem.
  8. Do you agree with the speaker? How would you feel about being famous?
Fame is a bee
It has a song--
It has a sting--
Ah, too, it has a wing.

Huh?