Camille Paglia called her one of the great Decadents. Most know her as one of the greatest satirical poets of the English language.
Structure and syntax aside, I like to think of her as the voice of a snotty twelve year old; a very smart, snotty twelve year old.
This is the poem that really nails what it feels like to be “two snotty twelve year olds, taking the piss, on the playground bench”. Never gets old.
Thanks, Emily Dickinson.
“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 one’s name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!”
