“I’m Nobody! …

 

“I’m Nobody! Who are you?”

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 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!

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I simply love the tone of this poem. There’s so much personality in it. There’s a mystery as to what a Nobody and a Somebody might be. A Nobody has a certain freedom and lightheartedness that a Somebody with an admiring bog doesn’t have by virtue of their Somebody-ness. I always feel a sense of innocent intimacy wash over me when I read this poem. I like that it exalts a state of un-ambitiousness, a non-notoriety.

I have always loved this poem. It has remained one of my favorites since childhood, and that is why I want to use it. To be honest, I haven’t much of a clue how this could be visually interpreted, but I thought it would be really fun to explore that as I went along. I definitely want to evoke the same emotions that poem gives me and hopefully develop my understanding of it.

Image by aru-lover (http://aru-lover.deviantart.com/art/Emily-Dickinson-75875195)