Thoughts on Two Poems

Thoughts on Two Poems

I'm Nobody!
by: Emily Dickinson(1830-1886)

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!

This poem reminds me of Yellow Wallpaper. This is especially true with the first stanza. It is easy to imagine the narrator of that short story have a conversation with the shadow lady that sounded much like the first stanza. The lines have a slightly batty undertone, essentially obvious that the speaker is losing their mind. The image of Dickinson living alone and writing makes the most sense in this poem. The sense of anonymity that exists in this poem is quite remarkable. I am curious to know whether or not Dickinson’s isolation led to this type of thought. I think this second stanza is speaking about the type of performance we do every day to just survive. I really like the image of image of a frog singing to his public. However, frogs do not croak because they want to but because they need to, it’s natural. This poem emphasizes the exhaustion that cultural façades may cause on some people. Thoreau would agree that high culture is exhausting and unnecessary. Although Dickinson may agree that upholding a façade is exhausting/dreary, using frogs to display this implies that this is a natural necessary exhaustion, with no choice. I’m not sure my analysis aligns with the transcendental school of thought, but I find it very interesting.



WHO ROBBED THE WOODS

*by: Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)*


WHO robbed the woods,

The trusting woods?

The unsuspecting trees

Brought out their burrs and mosses

His fantasy to please.

He scanned their trinkets, curious,

He grasped, he bore away.

What will the solemn hemlock,

What will the fir-tree say?

There are two answers to this robbing questions, Thoreau (and essentially all the Transcendentalists) and Oil companies/ Capitalism. My second answer seems quite silly, but I will address that later. The transcendentalists robbed the woods of their anonymity. Thoreau lived off the land and took in their beauty daily and lived among the trees. Most of the poem is actually a passive version of robbery. “Scanning” is not necessarily the most violent form, the form of robbery does not become tangible until the line “He grasped, he bore away” (Dickinson). The transcendentalists preached becoming “one with nature” and truly absorbing all if its beauty (I’m thinking of Emerson throughout Nature). So, the transcendentalist robbed nature of its peace and stillness for their own personal philosophical growth. However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Despite using the wood for shelter and using the land to grow food, the transcendentalists did not do much damage to the land on a big scale. People who do cause a lot of damage to nature are the second answer to this question. I believe the green movement could turn this into a protest/ “fight” song for their movement. The poem personifies the woods/nature making the trees sympathetic. Those who rob the woods are those who take advantage of all nature for material goods and selfish needs, unlike the transcendentalist. These are the real robbers. Thinking of the robbers as deforesters or factory owners makes this a very solemn poem.

It is interesting to relate Dickinson to the other works we have read throughout the semester. I think the only reason I am making these connection is because of the focus on the transcendental and their significance during the 19th century. I think reading transcendentalist works has opened me up to new trains of thought that have made life a bit more interesting and the simplest poems a bit more complex.