# Help finding a poem please about finding out that you're "average" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 20, 2002, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-finding-a-poem-please-about-finding-out-that-youre-average/104709 "2002-04-20T20:22:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Catmarie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8491ac/32.png) [@Catmarie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catmarie)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-finding-a-poem-please-about-finding-out-that-youre-average/104709/1 "2002-04-20T20:22:36Z")
A friend has asked me to find a poem something on the lines of “I thought I was good at …something? but now I find I’m average, and what does it matter anyway?” Could it be a Roger McGough poem or one of the other Liverpudlian poets? I tried searching on google but not much came back as she couldn’t remember the exact words. thanks ---
**Author:** ![ignatzmouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b2d939/32.png) [@ignatzmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ignatzmouse)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2002, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-finding-a-poem-please-about-finding-out-that-youre-average/104709/2 "2002-04-21T01:05:27Z")
I think I remember reading something like that but I’ve forgotten it because…well it just wasn’t that great. It wasn’t terrible, mind you, just a normal, forgettable poem. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2002, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-finding-a-poem-please-about-finding-out-that-youre-average/104709/3 "2002-04-21T02:02:27Z")
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 your name the livelong day To an admiring bog! ---
**Author:** ![RaCha\_ar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@RaCha\_ar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaCha_ar)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2002, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-finding-a-poem-please-about-finding-out-that-youre-average/104709/4 "2002-04-21T04:13:03Z")
**masonite** ’s poem is [I’m nobody!](http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?prmID=1174) by Emily Dickinson. Which is, as an aside, the only Dickinson poem I can tolerate at all. Never mind have some fondness for. Just came in to give a cite for the poem. Can’t help you with your specific poem, **Catmarie**. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2002, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-finding-a-poem-please-about-finding-out-that-youre-average/104709/5 "2002-04-21T04:34:17Z")
You know, I hoped nobody would think I was claiming that for my own. It’s pretty well known, but of course you can’t be too careful. Thanks for clarifying, **RaCha’ar** , as I should have. ---
**Author:** ![RaCha\_ar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@RaCha\_ar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaCha_ar)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2002, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-finding-a-poem-please-about-finding-out-that-youre-average/104709/6 "2002-04-21T04:43:18Z")
Oh, I didn’t mean to imply that, **masonite**. :eek: Just in case someone was curious about what it was and where it came from. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2002, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-finding-a-poem-please-about-finding-out-that-youre-average/104709/7 "2002-04-21T05:20:35Z")
You didn’t imply it, I just got paranoid! ---
**Author:** ![Regina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d78d45/32.png) [@Regina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regina)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2002, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-finding-a-poem-please-about-finding-out-that-youre-average/104709/8 "2002-04-21T05:45:10Z")
But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed, Though I have seen my head [grown slightly bald] brought in upon a platter, I am no prophet—and here’s no great matter; I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker, And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, And in short, I was afraid. . . . No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; Am an attendant lord, one that will do To swell a progress, start a scene or two, Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool, Deferential, glad to be of use, Politic, cautious, and meticulous; Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse; At times, indeed, almost ridiculous— Almost, at times, the Fool. I grow old … I grow old … I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. T. S. Eliot Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock I always thought this was about discovering that you are mediocre. ---
**Author:** ![Catmarie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8491ac/32.png) [@Catmarie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catmarie)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2002, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-finding-a-poem-please-about-finding-out-that-youre-average/104709/9 "2002-04-21T14:13:43Z")
NO sorry none of those sound like they were what she wanted. It was a long shot anyway 🙂 Its a pity that she couldn’t be a little more specific! thanks everyone!