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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.
Dickinson speaks in absolutes in this poem, primarily with the use of “Nobody” in the first stanza and “Somebody” in the second. Her language for the “Somebody” stanza includes “dreary” (Line 5) and “bog” (Line 8), suggesting a negative connotation or atmosphere. At the same time, her language for the “Nobody” stanza uses words like “pair” (Line 3), which seem more favorable in tone. This dichotomy depicts experience as either this or that, with either negative or positive associations supporting the dichotomy. As the poem progresses, however, Dickinson’s language offers wiggle room—a shade of gray—with which readers can also interpret the poem.
Within this seemingly black-and-white poem that suggests privacy is good and anything that opposes privacy is bad, there is room for interpretation. Dickinson describes the frog as “public” (Line 6), which is a word assumed to be negative in this poem, but there almost seems to be a sense of pity for the frog telling its name all “the livelong June” (Line 7). This interpretation might suggest that living things are complicated in their desires, as they feel compelled to be somebodies when perhaps they want to be nobodies or vice versa. The frog itself, while reminiscent of what the princess does not want to kiss, is also known as an innocuous creature.
By Emily Dickinson
A Bird, came down the Walk
Emily Dickinson
A Clock stopped—
Emily Dickinson
A narrow Fellow in the Grass (1096)
Emily Dickinson
Because I Could Not Stop for Death
Emily Dickinson
"Faith" is a fine invention
Emily Dickinson
Fame Is a Fickle Food (1702)
Emily Dickinson
Hope is a strange invention
Emily Dickinson
"Hope" Is the Thing with Feathers
Emily Dickinson
I Can Wade Grief
Emily Dickinson
I Felt a Cleaving in my Mind
Emily Dickinson
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
Emily Dickinson
Tell all the truth but tell it slant
Emily Dickinson
The Only News I Know
Emily Dickinson
There is no Frigate like a Book
Emily Dickinson