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Talk:I'm Nobody! Who are you?

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How does the poem go?

[edit]

There has been a question about the correct text of the poem. Naturally, there isn't one answer. Below are the 2 texts that seem "definitive" to me:

Poems by Emily Dickinson: Second Series (1891)

Ed. T. W. Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd

The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (1960)

Ed. Thomas H. Johnson

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!

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!

How dreary — to be — Somebody!
How public — like a Frog —
To tell one's name — the livelong June —
To an admiring Bog!

The first is the first publication of the poem (which you can see here), and how it was known to the world for about a century. The second is from what I take to be the definitive modern reading edition, based on Dickinson's manuscripts (this ultimately derives from the 1955 Variorum Edition, which I haven't seen). In my view, both should be given in the article. After all, it's a very short poem, and the differences are instructive. Phil wink (talk) 12:27, 20 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I see that of course Franklin is now the best authority for ED's texts... I was only a decade or two behind the times! I've put Franklin's text and the 1891 text into the article, which is now I think a little clearer. Phil wink (talk) 02:57, 24 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]