Lyric Poem · Funny
I'm Nobody! Who are you?
by Emily Dickinson · 1891
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 day
To an admiring bog!
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“I'm Nobody! Who are you?” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/im-nobody-who-are-you
Quick facts
- Poem
- I'm Nobody! Who are you?
- Poet
- Emily Dickinson
- Published
- 1891
- Length
- 8 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem, Short Poems
- Themes
- Funny, Life, Short
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 8 lines · 2 quatrains
- Line length
- Lines run 6-9 syllables (median 7). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the cited edition and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Emily Dickinson1830–1886
- Source record
- WikisourceI'm Nobody! Who are you? by emily-dickinson, Wikisource transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- 1891
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 4a5b744c43f39ab2…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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