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The poem is composed of two quatrains, and, with an exception of the first line, the rhythm alternates between iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter. The poem employs alliteration, anaphora, simile, satire, and internal rhyme but no regular end rhyme scheme. However, lines 1 and 2 and lines 6 and 8 end with masculine rhymes. The poet incorporates the pronouns you, we, us, your into the poem, and in doing so, draws the reader into the piece. The poem suggests anonymity is preferable to fame. The poem was first published in 1891 in Poems, Series 2, a collection of Dickinson’s poems assembled and edited by Mabel Loomis Todd and Thomas Wentworth Higginson.
