Analysis of Emily Dickinsons Im Nobody Who Are You - Essay Example

The poem incorporates the use of metaphor and simile to bring a given meaning and/or set of points to the reader’s attention.  This brief analysis will seek to analyze but one of these mechanisms and prove how it has been used to add a level of understanding and meaning to enable the author to “concretize” a given idea.  For purposes of this analysis, the author will consider the way in which simile is used in Emily Dickinson’s poem. 

Although scholars disagree on the level and/or extent of autobiographical intent which is revealed in this poem, the fact remains that one of the main topics that the piece discusses is the fear of discovery and disclosure.  Says the author, “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” (Dickinson 1)!  From the opening stanza, the reader is quickly made aware of the fact that disclosure is one of the biggest fears that the author deals with.  Similarly, the fear of disclosure is tempered by disgust and distaste for the manner in which other individuals tout their own names and other information.

What is unique is the way in which Dickinson uses the simile of the frog to evoke a profound understanding in the reader of something that is both unpleasant to discover and something that the author of the piece deeply desires to remain hidden.  Says Dickinson, “How public – like a frog - / To tell one’s name – the livelong June - / To an admiring Bog” (Dickinson 1)!  In this way, Dickinson both reveals the fact that the author prefers to remain an anonymous entity as well as pejoratively casts those that chose a different path as the hideous and unnatural manifestation of a human croaking their own triumphs and arrogance in a swamp.