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6
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant—
Success in Circuit 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—
6
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant—Success in Circuit 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—
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I believe this poem is discussing the concept that the truth is sometimes too difficult to understand. Emily Dickinson seems to be struggling with a truth that is too difficult to accept. When she says, “The Truth’s superb surprise As Lightening to the Children eased With explanation king”, I believe she is discussing that without explanation and truth itself sometimes is more than one can take. The “Children” perhaps symbolize the quality of naivity or innoncence.
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I think that this poem is talking about God and religion. God called himself the Truth. She is saying that everyone gets to know God in their own way and sees religion differently. The line, “Success in Circuit lies” most likely means that everyone has their own take on religion and it’s when people share how they see it that people learn about Him and “the Truth” really gets known.
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I think this poem is a reference to God and religion. The “T” in truth is capitalized just as the G in God is. When she says “tell all the truth but tell it slant”, I think it means that you should tell the truth of God, what is known, but tell it along with your opinions and ideas of God. “Success in circuit lies” means that by constantly spreading the “truth” and new ideas of religion is when we truly succeed. She compares the delight of the truth’s superb surprise to the uneasiness of children startled by lightning, because the truth of God and religion can be shocking. Thats why she says “the truth must dazzle gradually.”
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I agree with Rachel on this. I believe in this poem Emily Dickinson is saying that sometimes the truth is too difficult to grasp all at once. Sometimes the human mind cannot wrap itself around the full truth and must instead be given it slowly, piece by piece. In the line, “The Truth must dazzle gradually or every man be blind,’ I think Dickinson is saying that just as looking directly into a light will momentarily blind a person, having the truth suddenly thrust upon that person will momentarily blind his mind. Instead the mind must gradually adjust to the truth, just as a person’s eyesight must be given time to adjust to light.
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Truth has to be subtle otherwise it will be too “blinding” to understand and grasp…
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I personally believe that this poem is encouraging people to tell the truth but to be careful when doing so. The last half of the poem gives me this idea because Dickinson’s lines
“The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind”.
Also the line “With explanation kind”.
I get from this that she is telling us to be nice with what we say. Like the old example of when someone asks if you like his/her haircut and it looks just straight up hideous, instead of just lying to that person to be nice, tell the truth but try not to be so harsh. Just “slant” the truth a bit.
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To reiterate what was already posted. When I read this poem I think of someone being completely blunt toward another, and that complete truth hurting worse then a lie would have. Where when someone can tell the truth at a gradual pace it helps the situation.
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Well I think Dickinson wants us to always tell the truth no matter how tragic or a big surprise it is because its ok for a person to suffer with a truth than to stay blind without knowing it
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I think she is saying that the truth always need be told, but in the right way at the right time. when she mentions the children i think that that is the “right” time. At that time things are also simplified for them to understand. So the Truth is told in a timely manner in bits and pieces to better understand; because the whole Truth at one time would be too much for any one person to comprehend.
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Im this stanza I think she’s encouraging us to always tell the truth but in doing so find a nice or polite way to get our actually feelings or feedback out to an individual. Especially the last two lines, ” The Truth must dazzle gradually Or every man be blind if you tell it straight out and blount if could blind someone not literally but can cause damage. I find just told me the other day to be careful of the words I say, keep them soft and sweet because I’ll never know from day to day which ones I’ll have to eat and once again I think thats what emily dickinson is says tell the truth but keep it soft and sweet.
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I think she is pretty much saying the old saying the old people or what our parents told us coming up is that the ,”Truth shall set you Free.” So, always tell the truth to be honest and stay close to God.
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Basically the truth hurts. That is way you need to tell it slant sometime. You just can not go up to anybody and say, “You are ugly” or “You need to throw away that outfit” that would crush that person physically and mentally. Instead you can slant the truth by saying, “You are not looking your best today.” That would be better than verbally assaulting them.
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i think that this is saying that no matter how how true you seem to be tnere is bond to be a lie some where and with Truth being the main reference in this passage i think that the word is talking about some type of high archy like God or something
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We seemed to beat this dead horse in class; analyzing how we mortals cannot fathom the Truth. Dickinson certainly chases this thought. So, if it is true we cannot fully understand the depths of Truth, are we only catching passing half-truths which hold value but only for a time? What if we could manage to hold Truth, but it came in different images or realities? What if faith–not religion–was the embodiment of this Truth? Wouldn’t it be the only Truth worth pursuing? So much of intelligence and wisdom are based on worldly concepts which have no strong foundation at life’s end. Why can’t we chase after Truth if we know it will lead us past death? The trick is, however, to chase the true Truth and not a finite idea which has no power to defeat death.
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Sometimes we are blinded by the truth because we do not understand it. Therefore, if the truth is told in pieces it is easier to understand it and prevent yourself from the shocking truth. The truth should always be told, but sometimes not at once. We should give people enough time to comprehend what we have said before moving to the next point. When telling somebody the truth we should pick the right time, place, and words. Break the truth to one slowly so that they can understand you. Telling the truth is not always easy, but it is always the right thing to do.
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I think that this poem means that telling the truth is the best thing to do, but telling it with understanding of one’s feelings gives that person time to digest the information in parts instead of hitting them all at once. When we hear something bad we intend to go in shock, but sometimes when it is broken down to us slowly we can handle the truth more effectively.
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Tell the truth but be careful who you tell it to, truth and success lay hand in hand and it can brighten your life but you must not be blind to the truth. Truth is a hard thing to comprehend and except so you must take it all in stride.
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This poem is all about Truth. Dickinson is describing how sometimes truth can be too much for people. This is proved when she states, “Tell all the truth but tell it slant.”
She also goes on to clarify that it is a lot easier to not tell the whole truth and sometimes she feels it alright to do this. She also explains “The Truth must dazzle gradually” meaning that if the big truth is broken down and spoken of gradually, it will not have as big as an impact. This I think is also described when she talks about it not being delightful.
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I think this is saying to tell the truth, but you don’t always have to tell everything you know. You don’t have to tell everything up front or in the beginning. You can’t always tell a young child the full extent of the truth so it’s okay to tell what you know over time
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If you put a frog into a pan of boiling hot water it will jump right back out. But if you put the frog into cool water and eventually boil the water it will stay in. This is the same as what Dickinson is trying to get across, is that if you tell people straight up the hurtful truth they will back fire and jump right out of it and wont believe it, they wont accept it. But if you slow the truth down and give it to them piece by piece or give it to them nicely, they will take it in and will accept it better than they would by shoving them into a pan of boiling water.
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i feel as if this poem is trying to teach us a lesson if you will as our parents did in childhood years explaining to us the importance of honesty and i feel that this poem relates to the truth shall set you free.
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