I'm Nobody! Who are you?

In Emily Dickinson’s I’m Nobody! Who are you?, the speaker shows her excitement over meeting a kindred soul. The speaker, who considers herself a “Nobody”, is having a conversation and discovers that the person she is talking to is also a “Nobody.” The pair bond over their shared nature, and agree to keep their secret from all the “Somebody’s” out there. “How dreary—to be—Somebody!”, the speaker declares, ecstatic over her discovery of a friend. Dickinson then compares being a “Somebody” to being a frog, obliged to croak its name all day long to “an admiring Bog.” Dickinson’s portrayal of the “Nobody” is one of private, confident anonymity. The fact that “Nobody” seems to spend most of her time in quiet solitude, assuming that she is the only “Nobody” out there makes her discovery of one like her so exciting. Even in excitement, though, the “Nobody’s” must stay quiet, lest “they advertise—you know!” To preserve their silent anonymity, the pair must keep their status a secret, lest other “Somebody’s” find out and blow their cover, making their names known like the name of the frog in the swamp, thus turning them into “Somebody’s” themselves.
To the speaker and her comrade, being nobody does not carry any negative connotations, as it might in normal conversation. The poetic form allows Emily Dickinson to create a definition of nobody other than the standard dictionary definition. According to the Random House Dictionary, nobody is defined as “a person of no importance, influence, or power.” According to Dickinson’s speaker, though, nobody is a title to be proud of. It is also a self-identifier, rather than an acquired label. There is no evidence that “Nobody” resents her identity, or that name was forced upon her. To the contrary, “Nobody” has reclaimed her identity, redefining the word from a person of no importance or influence to one who treasures their anonymity and status as an outsider. Nobody self-assuredly strives to avoid the limelight and public life, not out of shame or shyness, but by deliberate choice.
Dickinson uses dashes frequently throughout this poem. These pauses present an image of a breathless speaker; breathless because of her excitement over meeting one like herself. The dashes begin in the second line, where the speaker becomes breathless with anticipation because she expects that she is meeting another “Nobody.” The dashes, which represent the natural pauses in the speech of a very excited person, continue throughout the rest of the poem. Dickinson also uses punctuation for the same effect. “Don’t tell!” is punctuated at the end by the exclamation point, which implores the listener to keep listening. The speaker is so excited about finding this kindred spirit that she worries about losing her new pal. The tone of the poem after the first two lines is a mixture of elation and a premature worry: that the speaker’s new friend will lose interest and leave. The breathless enunciation (indicated by the dashes) and the imperative and somewhat worried tone (indicated by the preponderance of exclamation points) are features of the poem that can’t be found in the text itself; rather, they are implied by the syntax and punctuation.
A very significant feature of this poem is the fact that the word “Nobody” is in uppercase in all its instances in the text. This shows that the “Nobody” in the poem is not a noun or a pronoun, but rather, a proper noun. “Nobody” is a real title, to be proud of, rather than a word used to signify a person who doesn’t matter. “Somebody” is also capitalized, which, in terms of the poem, classifies it as a diametrically opposite category of people. That every person belongs to one category or the other is a key assumption that this poem makes. “Nobody’s” are much rarer than “Somebody’s”, which explains the speaker’s response upon meeting one of her own. The comparison of “Somebody’s” to frogs is telling when working towards understanding the speaker’s perception of herself. Frogs “tell one’s name—the livelong June—to an admiring Bog!” While the description of the bog as “admiring” may seem contrary to the speaker’s negative portrayal of “Somebody’s”, an admiring audience is probably the last thing that the speaker wants. As a “Nobody”, she cherishes her anonymity and her intensely private life, so her characterization of those who are different than her as frogs, who are loud and proclaim their name and location all day long to all who are listening, makes sense coming from someone who prizes her inscrutability and obscurity.