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Emily DickinsonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
“I’m Nobody! Who Are You?” is an eight-line poem divided into two quatrains, or four-line stanzas. Dickinson identifies herself in the first line as a “Nobody” with a capital “N” and an authorial “I” (Line 1), connecting her personal experiences and thoughts to Pronouns and their importance in this poem. She juxtaposes her nobody status by rhetorically asking, presumably the reader, who they are. This first line has ironic qualities in that the abrupt announcement of being something that is normally negative is exaggerated into a positive. This exaggeration in turn leads to comedic effect and also an unexpected tone of pride. Most “nobodies” do not announce or even know other people to announce their status. In the second line, the speaker narrows her question even further by asking anyone, the reader specifically, if they are also a nobody. She uses dashes around the word “Nobody” to pause and provide emphasis on the word, using a poetic device known as caesura. In the third line, Dickinson assumes the answer from the prior question is a yes and announces that “there’s a pair of us” (Line 3), with the ending punctuation mark an exclamation point, seemingly expressing enthusiasm.
By Emily Dickinson
A Bird, came down the Walk
Emily Dickinson
A Clock stopped—
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A narrow Fellow in the Grass (1096)
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Because I Could Not Stop for Death
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"Faith" is a fine invention
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Fame Is a Fickle Food (1702)
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Hope is a strange invention
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"Hope" Is the Thing with Feathers
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I Can Wade Grief
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I Felt a Cleaving in my Mind
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I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain
Emily Dickinson
If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking
Emily Dickinson
If I should die
Emily Dickinson
If you were coming in the fall
Emily Dickinson
I heard a Fly buzz — when I died
Emily Dickinson
Much Madness is divinest Sense—
Emily Dickinson
Success Is Counted Sweetest
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Tell all the truth but tell it slant
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The Only News I Know
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There is no Frigate like a Book
Emily Dickinson