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Tell all the truth but tell it slant —
"Tell all the truth but tell it slant —" muses on how to go about telling the truth, arguing that delivering truth too directly will only overwhelm the recipient. Instead, the speaker says, it's best to get at the truth in a sort of roundabout way, telling it gently or bit by bit, so as not to shock people with its "brilliance." Written by Emily Dickinson—one of America's greatest and most influential poets—the poem showcases her characteristically imaginative style, managing to express vast abstract ideas in succinct, tightly constructed lines. Like nearly all of Dickinson's poems, it was not published until after her death, though it would have been written sometime between 1858-1865.
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Emily Dickinson
1,544 books6,806 followersEmily Dickinson was an American poet who, despite the fact that less than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime, is widely considered one of the most original and influential poets of the 19th century.
Dickinson was born to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. After she studied at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she spent a short time at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's house in Amherst. Thought of as an eccentric by the locals, she became known for her penchant for white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even leave her room. Most of her friendships were therefore carried out by correspondence.
Although Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime.The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Dickinson's poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation.Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends.
Although most of her acquaintances were probably aware of Dickinson's writing, it was not until after her death in 1886—when Lavinia, Emily's younger sister, discovered her cache of poems—that the breadth of Dickinson's work became apparent. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1890 by personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, both of whom heavily edited the content.
A complete and mostly unaltered collection of her poetry became available for the first time in 1955 when The Poems of Emily Dickinson was published by scholar Thomas H. Johnson. Despite unfavorable reviews and skepticism of her literary prowess during the late 19th and early 20th century, critics now consider Dickinson to be a major American poet.
For more information, please see http://www.answers.com/topic/emily-di...
Dickinson was born to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. After she studied at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she spent a short time at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's house in Amherst. Thought of as an eccentric by the locals, she became known for her penchant for white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even leave her room. Most of her friendships were therefore carried out by correspondence.
Although Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime.The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Dickinson's poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation.Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends.
Although most of her acquaintances were probably aware of Dickinson's writing, it was not until after her death in 1886—when Lavinia, Emily's younger sister, discovered her cache of poems—that the breadth of Dickinson's work became apparent. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1890 by personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, both of whom heavily edited the content.
A complete and mostly unaltered collection of her poetry became available for the first time in 1955 when The Poems of Emily Dickinson was published by scholar Thomas H. Johnson. Despite unfavorable reviews and skepticism of her literary prowess during the late 19th and early 20th century, critics now consider Dickinson to be a major American poet.
For more information, please see http://www.answers.com/topic/emily-di...
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 30, 2024
Emily Dickinson serving that cunt
June 26, 2021
Truth is the revelation to the human kind Emily explains, similar to lightening’s surprise which due to our diseased misconceptions of life we fail to capture entirely or at all. Still, as lightening was associated with truth; to enlighten, many failed to wonder why the metaphor of “lightening” but not “thunder” Emily Dickinson scribbled in her poem. We instinctively await the blaring sound after we witness the glimpses of lightening through the clouds, empowered by the very fact that we expect its coming we know no more that lightening precedes thunder in storms. Furthermore, if Emily were ignorant of this general fact, and it is a very big if, she would have used thunder as it for the public remains frightening even so people should know it is about to happen after they witness lightening. On the other hand, lightening is unexpected; it is left entirely in symmetry. Up to this level however, the metaphor of lightening in this poem remains perplexing; if lightening precedes the terrifying sound of thunder, which will definitely be “uneasy” for children, the lightening then is not terrifying as much as thunder will be. The question remains then, why did Emily prefer the metaphor of lightening over the terrifying sound of thunder that can be looked at from the point of view of the surprise of “truth”? Is it for the simple conclusion of the poem that “every man be blind” due to the brightness of truth? I look at it from another angle: if Emily by “Success in circuit lies . . . / lightening to the children eased / with explanation kind” meant to capture the relationship between truth and lies, I say the word “lies” to relate to the ambiguity of “circuit lies”, that means her lightening metaphor is a deliberate comment that truth is a lie. “Success in circuit lies” means at one point that truth lies in a circuitous way, but for Professor Ashby Crowder it is the “circuit” that lies; the circuit for Emily Dickinson is a constant image in her poetry referring to the circuit of life as we know it. Life as we know is often shaped by our reality and beliefs that usually mean for us the ultimate truth, yet as time goes by the truth our ancestral voices echoed in history is altered to new truths and might be refuted. For example, homosexuality was a plain truth to be the most wretched act a hundred years ago, but now many places around the world refuted this truth to the opposite. Consequently truth is not stable; it goes in circles that, at least in my personal experiences, lie. That being the case, for Dickinson reigned a remarkable ability in crafting the theme of the poem in the context, metaphors, and syntax of the poem itself creating a troubled meaning left for thousands of scholars to interpret differently; I go back to the problem of the metaphor “lightening”, if my claim that the “circuit” lies to us, life as we know it, it is possible that the poem lied as well. That is to say Emily was not ignorant of the natural phenomenon of thunder and its terror. The terrifying shrills of thunder dismiss the slant surprise of lightening with its incomparable terror. If truth preserved the light metaphor although there remained a greater entity than lightening, which in this case is thunder, lightening then would be a cliche that must be surpassed beyond its limits and seek the greater “surprise”, thunder, which neither to adults nor to children could ever be eased. Thus if our “infirm delight” could not observe truth when lightening occurred, how would it be possible to observe the greater and “superb” surprise of truth which falls out of the circuit and lightening itself? if “lightening” must “dazzle gradually”, which in nature and physics is out of possibility for light travels in straight unswerving lines, how would it be degraded to the level of the limited capacity of human intellect that restricts light to change its course and curve? I discussed the image and potential depth thunder might have communicated if it had been applied to the poem, but what I wrote now, Emily’s poem lacked, thunder does not exist in the poem, but so does not truth for our success in a simple life is only possible in circuitous lies.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 20, 2023
This poem pertinently pronounces Miss Dickinson’s attitude to life and her philosophy. The stress is on actuality, on furnishing a complete account of life’s experiences to irradiate concealed areas of knowledge and beauty.
Since man’s understanding is finite, this can be done only by indirection, by the poetic “slant”, which sifts homogenous facts to uncover creatively truth’s gold nuggets.
Like Emerson and Poe she felt that the poet was a especially endowed seer who sought to discover “circumference” or the ultimate mysteric.
Realistically she saw that such vision was necessarily limited, since “Nature is a Haunted House — but Art — a House that tries to be haunted.’
Unquestionably, in dealing with truth the poet considered beauty, too, for the two were interchangeable aspects of the divine nature. However, she never identified Nature with the divine, but contemplated the external world to understand better mast’s inner soul.
She retained the romantic belief that motivation and expressive response played an important role in the poetic experience.
The term “circuit” used by Miss Dickinson in this poem means the real and limited world of living man.
This term is to be differentiated from “circumference” which she used to indicate the immeasurable world. (“My business is circumference”, she wrote in a letter). This poem then makes explicit Miss Dickinson’s formation of the proper subject-matter of poetry: “Success in circuit lies”.
The circuit-world is what the poet must render; and by implication the truth about the circumference-world—heaven, eternity, immortality, etc—will become known.
This is thus a crucial poem defining the purpose and scope of the bard.
Miss Dickinson was a poet with singular insights; she was interested more in content than in form or complete phrasing.
She scarcely formulated an explicit poetic theory like Emerson or Poe, but from the comments scattered all through her letters and poems, her views on the obligations of a poet and the nature of her poetry can be determined.
Since man’s understanding is finite, this can be done only by indirection, by the poetic “slant”, which sifts homogenous facts to uncover creatively truth’s gold nuggets.
Like Emerson and Poe she felt that the poet was a especially endowed seer who sought to discover “circumference” or the ultimate mysteric.
Realistically she saw that such vision was necessarily limited, since “Nature is a Haunted House — but Art — a House that tries to be haunted.’
Unquestionably, in dealing with truth the poet considered beauty, too, for the two were interchangeable aspects of the divine nature. However, she never identified Nature with the divine, but contemplated the external world to understand better mast’s inner soul.
She retained the romantic belief that motivation and expressive response played an important role in the poetic experience.
The term “circuit” used by Miss Dickinson in this poem means the real and limited world of living man.
This term is to be differentiated from “circumference” which she used to indicate the immeasurable world. (“My business is circumference”, she wrote in a letter). This poem then makes explicit Miss Dickinson’s formation of the proper subject-matter of poetry: “Success in circuit lies”.
The circuit-world is what the poet must render; and by implication the truth about the circumference-world—heaven, eternity, immortality, etc—will become known.
This is thus a crucial poem defining the purpose and scope of the bard.
Miss Dickinson was a poet with singular insights; she was interested more in content than in form or complete phrasing.
She scarcely formulated an explicit poetic theory like Emerson or Poe, but from the comments scattered all through her letters and poems, her views on the obligations of a poet and the nature of her poetry can be determined.
October 16, 2025
This makes me think of Proverbs - "Do not say to a man you are only joking..." for there is truth in everthing...Jokes are only funny when there's some truth in them, and so feelings can get hurt. It's what it always made made me think of. This poem does the same. It might not necessarily be what she was intending, but she intimates that being too honest or direct may "blind" someone. I tend to agree. It does tend to be fun though.
January 30, 2021
“Tell all the truth but tell it slant-“. So much going on here. A woman of discernment and learner of painful life lessons.
June 25, 2023
What a life lesson ...
August 20, 2023
adore this poem
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews