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Nobody...What's your secret behind this poem?

Nobody...What's your secret behind this poem?
Nobody

by Shel Silverstein


Nobody loves me,
Nobody cares,
Nobody picks me peaches and pears.
Nobody offers me candy and Cokes,
Nobody listens and laughs at my jokes.
Nobody helps when I get in a fight,
Nobody does all my homework at night.
Nobody misses me,
Nobody cries,
Nobody thinks I'm a wonderful guy.
So if you ask me who's my best friend, in a whiz,
I'll stand up and tell you hat NOBODY is.
But yesterday night I got quite a scare,
I woke up and Nobody just wasn't there. I called out and reached out for
Nobody's hand,
In the darkness where Nobody usually stands.
Then I poked through the house, in each cranny and nook,
But I found somebody each place that I looked
I searched till I'm tired, and now with the dawn,
There's no doubt about it -
Nobody's GONE!


This poem, by Shel Silverstein, I stumbled upon in third grade. And for the longest time, I can remember thinking of "Nobody," as a person, or the child's imaginary friend. But I sold myself short, I realize now looking back on the poem. I reached for the secret, too soon.

The real secret is that this poem, like many other pictures and songs, is worth a thousand words. And that's where I sold myself short. And eventually forgot about the poem until recently, when on a bad day, I thought about it again.

And something made me think of "Who really was 'Nobody,' in the first place?"

  • Was "Nobody" an imaginary friend?

  • Was he/she a real person, by any chance?

  • Was "Nobody" a Ghost?

  • Or Was "Nobody" a representative of some kind?

Now, I felt I was getting closer. "Nobody" wasn't a person, or figment of a person - "Nobody" represented something. And that something was worth everything to the child in the poem. And in looking for the secret to the poem, I came upon this quote from the author of the poem, himself:

"I have a thing coming up where I've written a lot of dirty limericks where I haven't used any dirty words. I've invented my own dirty words. They're not a substitute for the other words, but can be used any way you want them." - S. Silverstein.

And the secret became much clearer. "Nobody" represented Imagination, in itself. Nothing less. The child did all of these things for himself, and somehow (I think in some ways it happens to a lot of us, growing up) he felt - what it was like to lose a chunk of his imagination. And what was left of it, started to make himself feel less confident about himself, and the creativity of the child is somewhat missing.
Who was "Nobody" to you?
So now he has to start searching for something - he can't even find. Because "Nobody" came in the form of an imaginary person, but represented much more - the child's freedom from doubt, and anxiety. A love for oneself, and a confidence to dream and make it happen. Or at least try, with confidence in oneself, through using creativity. And without worrying about who was
going to do it for the child.

But for the child, it all started with imagining - daring to dream, anyway the child wanted to. And when imagination took on absent-minded role, the child had to search to fill in the void.

So if I was to ask you the reader in looking for the secret, Who was "Nobody" to you? What was your impression? What's your secret behind this poem? Who do you think "Nobody" is?
Nobody...What's your secret behind this poem?
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