Explore the poem

This poem was written over 130 years ago, but it has a strong relevance today in the age of celebrity. Would you find it ‘dreary to be a somebody’, or would you like to be famous?

This poem directly addresses someone, so it would be a really good one to speak to another person. What might be fun is to look up a photo of a celebrity you’re not so fond of and speak the poem to them! Think about whether you’d want to swap places with them.

This is a short poem so don’t rush it. Use the punctuation to help you think about the weight of the pauses they suggest. Think about what to do with the indentation of the second line.

Emily Dickinson had little success in her own lifetime, and lived a very solitary life, but she is a very well respected poet now. If you became famous in the future, what would you like that to be for?

About Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson spent most of her life in Amherst, Massachusetts, where the Dickinsons were affluent and influential members of the local community. She spent some time as a young girl at the Amherst Academy and then as an energetic and fully involved member of a female seminary. She was independently minded and, at a time when a Calvinist declaration of faith in Jesus Christ and readiness to be ‘saved’ was encouraged, Emily remained true to her own religious principles and would not accept the doctrine of original sin.

However, she became increasingly reclusive in her late twenties, and there is much speculation as to why she retreated into her family home. Whatever the reason for her seclusion, she continued to produce hundreds of poignant, acutely observed poems. Only a few were published in her lifetime, and it was not until 1955 that the complete works of 1,750 poems became available.

Read more about Emily Dickinson in the
American National Biography