English: Emily Dickinsons Tell all the truth but tell it slant. Analysis - Essay Example

English: Emily Dickinson’s “Tell all the truth but tell it slant.” Analysis. Emily Dickinson’s, eight line poem “Tell all the truth but tell it slant” is typical of her literary style: short, quirky and deceptively simple. After a very brief introduction to the context of Emily Dickinson and her writings, this paper analyses the poem first in terms of its structure and style, and then in terms of its ideas and imagery. Finally conclusions are drawn regarding the way that form and content combine to deliver the poem’s key message to the reader.

The poem was written in around 1868 and the famously shy and private Emily Dickinson appears to have collected all her works together and to have shared them only with a few chosen friends, mostly by letter. Not many women had access to editors and publishers in those days, and so there are few others to compare her work with. It was not until after her death that her poems were published formally, and at this point her work received great critical success. Her poems are highly original, and the voice of the quiet, reclusive poet is recognized as a unique and valuable contribution to American poetry.

The structure of this little masterpiece is a mixture of regular and free components. The lines are arranged in pairs, with one line of eight syllables and one of six syllables. This creates a regular rhythm which is further emphasized by full rhymes in lines 2 and 4 “lies/surprise” and in lines 6 and 8 “kind/blind.” The other lines 1, 3, 5 and 7 do not rhyme, but there are alliterative elements throughout which create links across the whole poem, for example in the “s” sounds of the words slant, success, Circuit, superb and surprise (lines 1-4).

The poem, like most of Emily Dickinson’s work, does not have a title, but just exists as a little poetic paragraph alongside many others. The presence of capital letters at the start of each line is quite conventional, but in addition to this there are some capital letters dotted throughout the text and there is no punctuation apart from dashes at the end of the first and last lines. The unconventional capital letters occur mostly in abstract nouns such as Truth, Circuit, Delight, and perhaps also Success (line 2) which may be capitalized as a first word in the line and also as an abstract concept.

Two further nouns Lightning and Children (line 5) are capitalized, probably because they draw attention to an important analogy. Other nouns such as surprise, explanation and man are not capitalized. These typhographical inconsistencies show a departure from the normal rules of poetic construction. They create an impression of an unconventional mind which just states clearly and simply its own little nuggets of thought, with no care for the demands of editors or schoolteachers who would insist on “correct” formats.

The reader feels drawn into the poet’s intimate thoughts, and this is one of the most endearing features of her work. In terms of ideas the poem is deceptively simple. The opening line is a direct command “Tell all the Truth” followed by an apparent contradiction “but tell it slant - ” and the second line “Success in Circuit lies” amplifies the meaning. The word Circuit suggests a winding, circuitous route and not a shortcut to easy answers. The word “Truth” could refer to religious truth, or science, or even to daily gossip between people in the street, and this point is deliberately left open.

Another contradiction appears in the pairing of the adjective “infirm” with the noun “Delight.” This refers to human frailty, and the inability of mortal beings to grasp fully the “superb surprise” of absolutes like truth. The imagery of children being afraid of lightning, and requiring a kind explanation from adults, is an analogy which warns the reader of the danger which lies in certainty. Professing to know something for sure, is like being dazzled to the point of blindness. Emily Dickinson suggests that true knowledge, like true seeing, is something that takes a long period of patience and learning to acquire.

The poem’s unconventional format, and its striking imagery, along with a rather imprecise connection to the real world, are features which encourage the reader to find his or her own applications for its message. The poet seems to say that any kind of truth is multi-faceted, extremely powerful, and not to be treated lightly. This means that we must not accept ready- made and obvious declarations, but we should think carefully, and observe what goes on in the world so that we gain our insights slowly, with much reflection and a willingness to see what is not obvious at first sight.

Thus the poem is both personal, and universal, and this is what makes it so memorable. Reference Dickinson, Emily. “Tell all the truth but tell it slant.” In The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson. Boston and New York: Little, Brown and Co, 1960. [Poem dates from c. 1868], pp. 506-507.