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Emily DickinsonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
“I’m Nobody! Who are you?” by Emily Dickinson (ca 1861)
Like “We never know how high we are,” this poem is something of a puzzle. Dickinson upends conventions about what it means to be a somebody and a nobody. In Dickinson’s world, the two switch places. It’s greater to be nobody than somebody. A nobody is a somebody, and a somebody is a nobody. This poem spotlights the depth of Dickinson's trickiness and subversiveness. Read alongside "We never know how high we are," this poem helps demonstrate why a straightforward interpretation of heroism is hard to pull off. As with a nobody and a somebody, a hero can be a number of things.
“The Brain—is wider than the Sky” by Emily Dickinson (ca 1862)
This poem supports a reading of “We never know how high we are” in which Dickinson casts off the warping cubits. In “The Brain—is wider than the Sky,” Dickinson declares that the human mind is larger than the sky, deeper than the sea, and equal to the weight of God. What lifts a person to great heights isn’t their stature but their brain. To live like a king, a person must build their mental powers, not their reputations.
By Emily Dickinson
A Bird, came down the Walk
Emily Dickinson
A Clock stopped—
Emily Dickinson
A narrow Fellow in the Grass (1096)
Emily Dickinson
Because I Could Not Stop for Death
Emily Dickinson
"Faith" is a fine invention
Emily Dickinson
Fame Is a Fickle Food (1702)
Emily Dickinson
Hope is a strange invention
Emily Dickinson
"Hope" Is the Thing with Feathers
Emily Dickinson
I Can Wade Grief
Emily Dickinson
I Felt a Cleaving in my Mind
Emily Dickinson
I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain
Emily Dickinson
If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking
Emily Dickinson
If I should die
Emily Dickinson
If you were coming in the fall
Emily Dickinson
I heard a Fly buzz — when I died
Emily Dickinson
I'm Nobody! Who Are You?
Emily Dickinson
Much Madness is divinest Sense—
Emily Dickinson
Success Is Counted Sweetest
Emily Dickinson
Tell all the truth but tell it slant
Emily Dickinson
The Only News I Know
Emily Dickinson