Tell all the Truth but tell it slant—
Success in Cirrcuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth’s superb surprise
As Lightening to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind—
This poem has a knowing archness, a playful maturity that transcends simplistic morality. What is Dickinson suggesting about the ‘law’ with the ‘cirrcuit lies’? Do we accept a certain circulation of truth as being necessary? And is there a subtle oxymoron here ‘lying’ its way out into the open?
Perhaps then, this is a compassionate poem for us all? It recognises the awful horror sometimes of truth’s brutality and those who would wield its ‘purity’ as a weapon against the world. Truth after all has a subjective component. Truth may be bestowed as a symbol of pride rather than humanity. And it may also be of its time, enslaved by social contraints and moral pressure.
Divine truth is not local truth.
Truth though has a transcendent power that can Dickinson argues, ‘dazzle’ and this may ironically blind those near to it, so that may affect any ability to see beyond its presence.
This is a superb poem for discussion, and can draw out even the most reluctant student to argue what truth at a ‘slant’ may be and when it may be a VERY good thing!