Emily Dickinson

1. Emily Dickinson

3. In a nutshell • Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her father and mother were both what we would today call "distant." Her brother, Austin, was bossy but ineffective; her sister, Lavinia, never married, and lived with Emily and was protective of the much shyer Emily.

4. Emily Dickinson Facts • Known for: inventive poetry, mostly published after her death - edited by two of her friends, Mabel Loomis Todd and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. • Occupation: poet • Dates: December 10, 1830 - May 15, 1886

5. 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!

6. I’m nobody! Who are you? • Type of Work • “I'm Nobody! Who Are You?” is a lyric poem on the folly of seeking fame. The poem contains only two stanzas, each with four lines. A four-line stanza is called a quatrain.

7. Theme • “I'm Nobody! Who Are You?” presents the theme that it is better to be a humble nobody than a proud somebody. After all, ‘somebodies’ have to spend their time maintaining their status by telling the world how great they are. How boring!

8. Meter • Except for the first line, the poem alternates between iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, as the second stanza demonstrates. • Iambic foot – [ u / ] • Tetrameter – Four iambic feet • [u /] [u /] [u /] [u /] • Trimeter – three iambic feet • [u /] [u /] [u /]

9. Meter 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.

10. End Rhyme • The poem has no regular scheme of end rhyme. However, line 1 rhymes with line 2 and line 5 with line 7. Each of these rhymes is masculine. Masculine rhyme occurs when only the final syllable of one line rhymes with the final syllable of another, as in you and too (lines 1 and 2). There are no feminine rhymes in the poem. Feminine rhyme occurs when the final two syllables of a line rhyme with the final two syllables of another line, as in singing and ringing.

11. Internal Rhyme (lines 1-3) • I'm nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too? Then there's a pair of us—don't tell!

12. Satire • The poem satirizes glory seekers as well as their admiring fans. One wonders what Dickinson would say about glory seekers in today's world—the movie stars, athletes, politicians, lawyers, and others who regularly show up on television to toot their horns before admiring audiences. To be sure, many famous people past and present deserve recognition. But there are just as many who seek and gain recognition for trivial pursuits by croaking their names, "like a frog . . . the livelong June." 

13. Engaging the reader • Dickinson brings the reader into the poem with her use of the pronouns you, we, us, and your. This approach enhances the appeal of the poem, making you feel—ironically—like "somebody" (or at least a worthwhile nobody).

14. Figures of Speech Alliteration/Consonance • Then there's (line 3)  They'd banish us, you know (line 4) How dreary to be somebody (line 5) How public, like a frog (line 6) To tell your name the livelong day (line 7)

15. Figures of Speech Anaphora • How dreary to be somebody! How public, like a frog (lines 5-6) Simile • How public, like a frogTo tell your name the livelong day Comparison of the speaker's listener/reader to a frog.

16. Questions • Was Emily Dickinson a nobody during her lifetime? Explain your answer. • The phrase "admiring bog" (line 8) represents the people who look up to a somebody. What is a bog? • Why does Emily Dickinson choose a frog to represent a somebody? • Would you like to become famous? If so, what would you do to avoid becoming a "frog"?

18. PAIN has an element of blank; It cannot recollect When it began, or if there were A day when it was not. It has no future but itself, Its infinite [realms] contain Its past, enlightened to perceive New periods of pain

19. Theme • Dickinson is speaking about two aspects of pain, its timelessness and its irresistible dominance. The poem is structured by references to time (the past in lines 1-4; the future, line 5; the past, the present, and the future, lines 6-8).

20. Paraphrase • Lines 1-4: Pain is so overwhelming that it blots out our sense of ever having experienced anything but pain; the sufferer remembers the past as having consisted only of pain. • Lines 5-8: In the grip of pain, we see only continuing and relentless pain in the future; our lives and identities have become consumed by pain. Our lives, we ourselves, are only pain.

21. Empathizing with pain • Not once is the person feeling the pain referred to; not once is his/her point of view presented. Dickinson writes from the perspective of pain to make important points about pain • The depersonalization of the sufferer is so complete that she has no other feelings; thus, the poem contains no words which express emotion. • Nevertheless, under the chillingly objective surface of the poem, are feelings implied? Do you as the reader feel the sufferer's hopeless resignation or despair?

22. Phrasing • The "element of blank" (line 1) describes how pain clears or empties life of other experience. We are aware only of pain, as the word "infinite" (line 6) suggests. • "Enlightened" (line 7) is ironic. Enlightenment is insight which enlarges our intellectual or spiritual understanding or enhances our knowledge. The enlightenment which pain brings is the realization that the future holds more and still more pain. Is this an enlightenment we would gladly do without?

23. Phrasing • "New periods of pain" (line 8) seems to contradict the idea of unbroken continuity in lines 1-7, but this is probably not meant literally, unless we assume one "period" to be followed immediately by another "period." Or does this phrase mean that pain succeeds pain, without stopping, just as one period of time succeeds another without interruption. How do you read this line?

24. Sounds • Line 1 opens with two one-syllable words, both of which are accented. This emphasis opens the poem with a strong assertion. • The repetition of sounds subtly emphasizes meaning and connects significance. This repetition is heard by the ear, even if you are not conscious of the sounds as you read. Note the repetition of a consonant in the following lines: • line 1, element, blank; • line 2, It cannot recollect • lines 5, 6: future, itself, infinite; • lines 7, 8: past, perceive, periods, pain.

25. Sounds • There is only one exact end-rhyme in this poem: "contain" (line 6) and "pain" (line 8). This fact gives special emphasis to these words and the ideas they convey. Is there any reason why Dickinson might want to emphasize and/or connect these words/meanings? Or has she made a mistake?

27. My life closed twice before its close— It yet remains to see If Immortality unveil A third event to me So huge, so hopeless to conceive As these that twice befell. Parting is all we know of heaven, And all we need of hell.

28. Literal translation • I died twice before my life ended. • Obviously not. Death is a metaphor, again. • It possibly means that the speaker has experienced two tragedies that caused her life to ‘end’ – death of two loved ones? • “It’s close” at the end if line 1 refers to actual death • Until we really die, we experience many awful things similar to the horror of passing away

29. Contemplates the burden of anticipating another disaster in life, and compares how detrimental it will be if it is as painful as the previous two • Metaphors of vision • See (also personification) • Unveil • The speaker asks if Death (Immortality) has anything beyond it

30. The last two lines of this poem present a powerful paradox; parting is both heaven and hell. We part with those who die and--hopefully--go to heaven, which is, ironically, an eternal happiness for them; however, we who are left behind suffer the pain (hell) of their deaths (parting).

31. Analyzing the possibilities of who the two deaths could be, it is most likely the death of her mother, 'Emily Norcross', and that of her nephew, 'Thomas Gilbert Dickinson'; both occurring within a year interval of each other. The death of her 7 year old nephew from typhoid fever devastated her ability to conceive happiness.

35. I Felt a Funeral, in my brain • Traces the speaker's descent into madness • The speaker experiences the loss of self in the chaos of the unconscious, and the reader experiences the speaker's descending madness and the horror most of us feel about going crazy

36. Dickinson uses the metaphor of a funeral to represent the speaker's sense that a part of her is dying, that is, her reason is being overwhelmed by the irrationality of the unconscious • Connotative attachments to ‘funeral’ • Death • Order and Control

37. The control and order implicit in a funeral contrast ironically with the lack of control and the loss of rationality that threaten the speaker • Parallels - passing from one stage to another • Life  Death • Sanity  Insanity

38. Funeral; remember it is a metaphor, and she is both observing it and feeling it • Implying that the Self is divided • Watching her Being shatter into chaos • Mourners; metaphor • Their treading (note the repetition of the word, which gives emphasis and suggests the action) indicates a pressure that is pushing her down. • The pressure of the treading is reasserted with the repetition, "beating, beating." • This time her mind, the source of reasoning, goes "numb," a further deterioration in her condition.

39. The speaker has a momentary impression that reason ("sense") is escaping or being lost. • Speaker's loss of rationality in stanzas three and four • She sees herself as "wrecked, solitary" • Her descent into irrationality separates her from other human beings, making her a member of "some strange race." • Her alienation and inability to communicate are indicated by her being enveloped by silence.

40. Last stanza • Standing on a plank or board over a precipice; metaphor • Descent in irrationality- “and then I dropped down and down” • Her grip on life was super fragile and unstable • “And hit a world at every plunge” • Suggests the ‘fall’ happened with great speed and force • The term ‘world’ could mean - Her past? Other instances of insanity? • Definitely loses her connection to reality

41. Last line • The last word of the poem, "then--," does not finish or end her experience but leaves opens the door for the nightmare-horror of madness.