How can a frog tell one's name? Frog's call sounds like Bog, and that is the name of that nobody. Bog has the meaning of a bugbear, a source of dread (OED bog n.2). The narrator of this poem is a bugbear.
I'm Nobody! Who are you? 1
Are you－Nobody－Too?
Then there's a pair of us!
Don't tell! they'd advertise－you know!
How dreary－to be－Somebody! 5
How public－like a Frog－
To tell one's name－the livelong June－
To an admiring Bog!
Are you－Nobody－Too?
Then there's a pair of us!
Don't tell! they'd advertise－you know!
How dreary－to be－Somebody! 5
How public－like a Frog－
To tell one's name－the livelong June－
To an admiring Bog!
(F.260/J.288)
[1] Nobody:: no person; no one (OED 1a); extended to no human.
[2] you, Too:: the narrator meets another bugbear.
[4] advertise:: to give public notice for something unusual (monsters to see).
[5] dreary, Somebody:: the bugbear thinks that human is dreary.
[5, 6] Somebody, Frog:: the somebody is like a frog.
[7] tell one's name:: the frog calls the bugbear's name, Bog. June:: the mating season of frog.
[8] admiring:: as an admirer of the bugbear. Bog:: a bugbear, a source of dread (OED bog n.2).
[6-8] public, Bog:: man who calls bugbear bog in public, is annoying just like frog's endless call for mating, bog, bog, bog.
Bugbear is a frightful object; from bug, terror, and be ogre, a frightener; a walking spectre, imagined to be seen: generally now used for a false terror to frighten babes. . . . The idea of a spectre or bugbear connected with the bog is probably derived from the luminous vapors and exhalations which are general in bogs, and which often assume fantastic shapes, sufficient to alarm and terrify the ignorant rustic who may approach them at night. ─ The London Encyclopaedia (1829)
