this two-level society of somebodies and nobod-
ies, the speaker identifies with the nobodies. She
means that she is not publicly recognized, that
her identity is not widely known by others. Also
implied is the idea that the speaker lacks influ-
ence and rank. A nobody is an anonymous
person, one who blends in, conforms with the
majority, and can go and come quietly without
being recognized or talked about. The speaker
is acutely aware that this anonymity can evap-
orate if the person’s uniqueness is drawn into
public view. In that case, the person is ‘‘adver-
tised,’’ and the exposure transforms the previ-
ously unknown person into someone in
particular, a somebody. Thus, while the speaker
initiates an introduction, she also asks the other
person not to ‘‘tell’’ because telling others
threatens to draw a wider level of attention
than the speaker wants.
Privacy
The poem is also about the ambivalence the
speaker feels regarding the need for privacy and
the desire to be known to another person. The
speaker wants to be recognized by the person to
whom she speaks. She wants to make a confed-
eracy of two with the addressed person. They can
agree privately to know each other and yet
remain nobodies in part by not reporting their
acquaintance to others. The speaker reveals her
ambivalence by the double act of introduction
and request for confidentiality. She wants her
privacy preserved, but she wants contact with
another person also. With the assurance of con-
fidentiality, she can have a small social contact
with a person of her rank. She can do this with-
out fear of exposure to the wider society.
Exposure
The act of exposure in this poem is clandestine. It
is as though the speaker is whispering behind her
cupped hand to someone she does not know who
happens to be near her, perhaps at a public
gathering. Identifying herself as a nobody
involves exposing herself as someone. The
irony here lies in the fact that as soon as the
listener acknowledges the speaker, the speaker
becomes someone in the eyes of the listener. So
the self-effacing introduction the speaker uses
works to uncover the speaker, draw attention
to her, and elicits some form of recognition
from the person whom she addresses. In this
sense, then, the speaker’s identity is changed by
the act of introduction.
Style
Punctuation and Capitalization
Thumbing through any collection of Emily
Dickinson’s poetry immediately reveals certain
oddities of the poet’s style. Her favorite mark of
punctuation is the dash, and capitalization is
idiosyncratic. Fragments and phrases occur
more often than complete sentences. Clearly,
the conventional mechanics imposed on prose
and most poetry of Dickinson’s time are aban-
doned in these poems.
Following the established rules of punctua-
tion, capitalization, and grammar facilitate com-
munication, helping the reader understand the
text. Readers who know how marks of punctu-
ation should be used also understand that these
marks serve as signposts, identifying the rela-
tionship between words and groups of words.
For example, a colon can introduce a list. But it
can also be placed between independent clauses,
in which location the colon announces that theA loner(Image copyright Sereda Nikolay Ivanovich, 2009. Used
under license from Shutterstock.com)I’m Nobody! Who are you?