Summary Of Famous By Naomi Shihab Nye

In the poem Famous by Naomi Shihab Nye, the speaker is a person (male or female) who is a deep thinker and longs for wanting to be needed. The nine-stanza, 21 line poem goes through the different examples of nature, people or things and how they are valued by someone/something. It could be a buttonhole, a man walking down the street, a sleeping cat, or a tear, Nye connects that thing to something that relies on the object or person using simple but purposeful language. This happens throughout the entire poem until the last two stanzas, in the last two stanzas the speaker reveals how they want to be famous with more examples including things like “shuffling men who smile” and “sticky children in grocery lines,”. The poem overall is about a

person who is still trying to figure out who they are, and what their purpose in life is and how they will go about achieving it.
Nye tends to use words that end in an ‘s’-ish sound, “famous”, “birds”, “crossing streets”, etc.

This technique is called sibilance, the ‘s’ sound at the end of these words makes the reader slow down when they read the poem. Nye did this on purpose, she wanted the reader to read the poem slowly, so they could digest what she is saying. Each stanza forms a new example of how the speaker feels and wants to be. In line 7, “The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek.”, the cheek is the first thing a tear lands on. When the tear “briefly” hits the cheek, it is almost as if it was a relief to the cheek because that person is letting out their emotions. The cheek depends on the tear, whether it be for a sad, happy, angry moment it will always be there. In lines 8-9, “The idea you carry close to your bosom is famous to your bosom.”, the bosom is another word for a woman's chest or you can say her heart. If someone has an idea they have had for a long time it will be in their heart and they will stop at nothing to keep it there because it is the most important thing a person has. “The boot is famous to the earth, more famous than the dress shoe” when a person wears boots it usually means that they are doing things outside and are actually interacting with the earth. All of these examples of objects being ‘famous’, expands the definition of the word itself. Usually, when a person thinks of famous they think of the glitz and glam. Most people do not think about the word famous being

used with a different definition, that definition being: being known or dependable on or having a purpose.
The last two stanzas, the speaker identifies themself by using the pronoun ‘I’.

They reveal in what that he or she wants to be famous, “I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous, or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular, but because it never forgot what it could do.” The speaker does not necessarily want to be the center of attention or popularly known, they just want to be someone who people can rely on or go to in a time of need. They mention a random thing like a buttonhole because most people overlook that and do not realize how important it is. People use buttonholes almost every day, without them people would not able to get dressed because they need that buttonhole to zip their pants or cover up their chest. The speaker just wants to have a positive impact on a person’s life, even if it is just by doing small things. It will all add

up.
The poem raises the big question: Do we need to do something in order to be what the speaker describes as being famous? The question does not have a definite answer because someone may impact someone’s life without knowing it. Holding up a door for someone, saying thank you, or like the poem says, just smiling at someone. Those are things people do unintentionally, it is a reaction. A person could be having the worse day, and all someone has to do is be nice to that person, that person does not even know the other person who is being nice and trying to start a conversation but is now having a better day than what it was before. Everyone does things unintentionally and purposefully, it is just the way someone receives those actions. They might like it, they might not, there is no chance in telling what will happen.