Emily Dickenson?

Question

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant

Ok. I have a project to do over her and a poem. I had chosen this particular one. Now, I have to draw a picture that replicates the poem in some form. I decided to draw a face, with words flowing out of the mouth : But, we didn't go there...instead, etc. I haven't figured out any sentences yet. But, that's where I need help. Could anyone help me with sentences that could match up with this poem. The poem, if you haven't read it...is short, and it's basically saying to tell the truth, but not the whole truth. So...I want to make a story plot, you could say......Help!! Thank you. I would appreciate this, if you just try to help...I'm terrible at figuring this stuff out...Walt whitman is going to be easier though!

Answer 1

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant—
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise

As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind—

Emily Dickinson
**
Sentence matching the poem:

Make every bargain clear and plain
That none may afterwards complain.

Ok.
The poem is about how the truth should not be told fully right away but that you must gradually tell the truth so not to offend anyone. And that the truth told in moderation is the best way to reveal the truth. And also that white lies are not always the best things.
The poem is distinctly spiritual, but carrying strong political undertones. The "Truth" being referred to here is Dickinson's own individual truth, a mixture of her Puritan upbringing and her strong Transcendentalist leanings. Dickinson could not as a poet accept the puritan placing of God as a central figure, explicable only through revelation. For Dickinson, God is unexplicable, ungraspable by the human mind. Here we can see how the "Truth" may blind - both that the Puritrans at the time could not accept this view of God, and that Dickinson's God cannot be understood by the human mind.

Good luck