“Tell all the truth but tell it slant —” Summary

“Tell all the truth but tell it slant —” Themes

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  Truth and Understanding

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• 

  The Nature of Poetry

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Tell all the truth but tell it slant —”

• Line 1

  Tell all the truth but tell it slant —

  

  

  

  

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• Line 2

  Success in Circuit lies

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 3-4

  Too bright for our infirm Delight
  The Truth's superb surprise

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-6

  As Lightning to the Children eased
  With explanation kind

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 7-8

  The Truth must dazzle gradually
  Or every man be blind —

  

  

  

  

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“Tell all the truth but tell it slant —” Symbols

• 

  Light

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“Tell all the truth but tell it slant —” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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• Sibilance

  

  

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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“Tell all the truth but tell it slant —” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Slant
• Circuit
• Infirm
• Superb
• Dazzle

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Tell all the truth but tell it slant —”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Tell all the truth but tell it slant —” Speaker

“Tell all the truth but tell it slant —” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Tell all the truth but tell it slant —”

More “Tell all the truth but tell it slant —” Resources

• External Resources

  • Biography and Further Reading — Check out this brief biography of Emily Dickinson, along with a selection of her poems.

  • Additional Resources on Dickinson — For more information about the poet's life and work, take a look at the Emily Dickinson Museum's website.

  • The Emily Dickinson Collection — Harvard Library's Emily Dickinson Collection includes preserved copies of over a thousand of her handwritten poems and letters.

  • Hear the Poem — A performance of the poem by actress Alice Barclay for Live Canon Poetry.

  • A Further Examination of the Poem — This craft essay by Camille T. Dungy provides some additional insight into the poem and its influence on modern poetry.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Emily Dickinson

  • A Bird, came down the Walk

  • After great pain, a formal feeling comes –

  • A Light exists in Spring

  • A Murmur in the Trees—to note—

  • A narrow Fellow in the Grass

  • An awful Tempest mashed the air—

  • As imperceptibly as grief

  • A still—Volcano—Life—

  • A Word dropped careless on a Page

  • Because I could not stop for Death —

  • Before I got my eye put out

  • Fame is a fickle food

  • Hope is the thing with feathers

  • I cannot live with You –

  • I cautious, scanned my little life

  • I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—

  • I did not reach Thee

  • I died for Beauty—but was scarce

  • I dreaded that first Robin, so

  • I dwell in Possibility –

  • I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

  • If I can stop one heart from breaking

  • I had been hungry, all the Years

  • I have a Bird in spring

  • I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -

  • I like a look of Agony

  • I like to see it lap the Miles

  • I measure every Grief I meet

  • I’m Nobody! Who are you?

  • I started Early — Took my Dog —

  • I taste a liquor never brewed

  • It was not Death, for I stood up

  • I—Years—had been—from Home—

  • Like Rain it sounded till it curved

  • Much Madness is divinest Sense -

  • My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun

  • Nature is what we see

  • One need not be a Chamber — to be Haunted

  • Publication — is the Auction

  • Safe in their Alabaster Chambers

  • Shipwreck

  • Success is counted sweetest

  • The Brain—is wider than the Sky—

  • The Bustle in a House

  • The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants

  • There came a Wind like a Bugle

  • There is no Frigate like a Book

  • There's a certain Slant of light

  • There's been a Death, in the Opposite House

  • The saddest noise, the sweetest noise

  • The Sky is low — the Clouds are mean

  • The Soul has bandaged moments

  • The Soul selects her own Society

  • The Wind – tapped like a tired Man –

  • They shut me up in Prose –

  • This is my letter to the world

  • This World is not Conclusion

  • 'Twas the old—road—through pain—

  • We grow accustomed to the Dark

  • What mystery pervades a well!

  • Whose cheek is this?

  • Wild nights - Wild nights!