I’m Nobody! Who are you? (288) by Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson

I’m Nobody! Who are you? (288) by Emily Dickinson

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Why I am no good at the stage, why I always feel like running away, and when I am ready to do so I try very hard to remember all my friends who choose to sit in the quiet with someone like me.

Once I sat at a round table full with famous elbows. I felt so very little, so very unnecessary. And so glad—because I can stand up and walk away, and I did.

I’m Nobody! Who are you? (288)

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!

—

This is from The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson, published by Little, Brown & Company, 1960.

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poetry