Joyce Carol Oats once called Emily Dickinson ‘the most paradoxical of poets, the very poet of paradox.’ At first read, the reader might be able to comprehend what Dickinson wants to convey through this poem. However, Dickinson is known for work that’s full of ambiguity; odd manipulations in rhymes, images and words that seem mysterious and sometimes out of place. She always has something hiding up her sleeve. ‘Tell All the Truth but Tell It Slant’ is one such work of Dickinson.
Introduction
Poem’s name- Tell All the Truth But Tell It Slant
Poet’s name- Emily Dickinson.
Genre- Mysterious, lyrical
Language- English.
Synopsis
Most of the poems of Emily Dickinson have an underlying theme attached to them. These poems generally talk about life, death, faith and doubt. ‘Tell All the Truth but Tell It Slant’ is one of the most popular and arguably the most controversial works of Dickinson.
Like the other poems, it also has a didactic tone attached to it. Published in 1890, the poem gives us a lesson about the power of truth and how difficult it is to communicate the truth to someone. Dickinson informs us, to tell the truth indirectly because listening to the truth directly would be too bright or bitter for some to understand.
About the Poet
Source-Emily Dickinson Museum
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American Poetry.
Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts into a prominent family with strong ties to its community. After studying at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she briefly attended the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's home in Amherst.
Evidence suggests that Dickinson lived much of her life in isolation. Considered an eccentric by locals, she developed a penchant for white clothing and was known for her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, to even leave her bedroom. Dickinson never married, and most friendships between her and others depended entirely upon correspondence.
While Dickinson was a prolific writer, her only publications during her lifetime were 10 of her nearly 1,800 poems, and one letter. The poems published then were usually edited significantly to fit conventional poetic rules. Her poems were unique for her era. 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, and also explore aesthetics, society, nature and spirituality.
Self-Analysis
Right from the first two lines, Dickinson plants a seedling of ambiguity.
"Tell all the truth but tell it slant-
Success in Circuit lies."
The word ‘all’ in the first line can either mean the whole truth or tell everyone the truth. The poet through these two lines wants to convey how we should tell the truth in an indirect way, as success lies in saying the truth in a ‘circuitous’ way.
"Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth’s superb surprise."
In the next two lines, Dickinson conveys how the truth if it is described in one go can be ‘too bright’ or extremely bitter for us to be able to cope with it.
"As Lightning to the Children eased-
With explanation kind."
Here, she equates telling slant truth to adults easing children by explaining to them about lightning. Small children who do not understand the concept of lightning and are afraid of it, are slowly and softly explained by their parents. In a similar way, Dickinson wants that we should tell the ‘lightning’ truth in a soft and gradual manner.
"The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind-"
In these last lines, she again conveys that the truth should be told gradually or slowly, or else we won’t be able to cope with it and will be left overwhelmed or ‘blind’.
Conclusion
This is what I think, Dickinson wants to convey through her poem. She essentially wrote a poem that is not as direct as it seems to be. She wants the readers to destabilize the meaning of the poem within so that it dazzles gradually to them.
My rating for the poem- 4.5 on 5
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Written by- Paridhi Aggarwal
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