Preview

Tell All The Truth But Tell It Slant Meaning

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1024 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Tell All The Truth But Tell It Slant Meaning
Topic: Tell all the truth but tell it slant — (1263) By Emily Dickinson Can we handle the truth? The truth for better or worse is always a powerful point that people can make. When I was young telling the truth was always very important, but at times it can be hard. Sometimes the truth hurts and sometimes for the better depending on the situation. On Emily Dickinson’s famous poem she analyzes the power of truth and the honest way to tell it.

The poet is clearly interested in truth by reading this poem. The words that Emily Dickinson uses are powerful and efficient. The poet dresses her words with a great character, and importance, she also forces the readers to discover the connections between the words and look up for the meaning of each word. “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant” we can tell that the poet recognizes the truth, but she also builds a dynamic option to hold it back, when she says “tell it slant”. However, This poem gives us some doubts about how honest this “slant” telling really is. Going back to into the first line,
…show more content…
“To bright for our Infirm Delight" infirm means not physically or mentally strong and sometimes that happen because of age, and we are infirm because nobody has the ability to handle truth. Truth is to much or to bright for us because it can be explained unfairly, and people would not know what or how to do with it either. "As lightning to a child eased" the poet mentions a great example about the truth by referring the scariness that children have of lightning and people could be scared of the complete depth of the truth, so it relieves us to get a little bit of the truth or accepting those lies that can make us feel better and either way we will be frightened, we must have the truth but it has to be

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    There are two possible narrators for Emily Dickinson’s “Tell all the Truth…” The book clearly shows that the inclusion of the poem marks the moment when Adah decides to speak. Up until that point she truly was a silent observer and picked up the idiosyncrasies of the other characters and of the Congo. Because of this, she bore the most truth within the Price family. When she and Orleanna returned to Bethlehem…

    • 847 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Unit 4 – THE AGE OF JACKSON Chp. 13-15 & 17 (skip 16) 10/22 – 11/7…

    • 377 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Emily Dickinson’s main purpose in poem 355 is to describe an indefinable depression. She creates a melancholy persona to depict the chaos and despair she feels because of her condition. Her poem is structured around her uncertainty towards her mental state. Dickinson, in the first two stanzas, eliminates possibilities to what she may be feeling. She analyzes that “it was not death”, “it was not night”, “it was not frost”, “nor fire”. The poem appeals to the human sense of touch, as Dickinson compares tangible sensations that the body normally experiences to her tumultuous emotions. In the third stanza, Dickinson synthesizes all of the possibilities she eradicated in the previous two stanzas, ominously stating that her condition “tasted like them all”. The narrator is unable to distinguish her feelings from one another, leading the reader to conclude that she is in a chaotic state of mind. She compares her condition to a funeral, both of which evoke death. In the fourth stanza, Dickinson continues to explore her persona’s dark psyche. The narrator experiences terror and despair to the point where she “could not breathe.” Her only “key” to escape this punishment is to be able to understand what she is feeling and why…

    • 518 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The language present in Emily Dickinson’s poetry is at times unclear, sometimes ungrammatical and can be found to be disjunctive. Dickinson wrote in distinct brevity, irregular grammar, peculiar punctuation and hand picked diction. Her poems were written in a circular manner, where she took the reader to one place and them swept them back to the beginning always relating one metaphor to the next. Dickinson was an intimate person throughout her life, and her poems reflect that lifestyle. Like her poems, she was never quite figured out. Dickinson wrote not for the audience to understand but for her own self expression by writing down the words as they came to her, with little regard to the conventional syntax or diction. In this poem Dickinson coveys a metaphorical description of hope through simple language to explain a complex idea present in everyone’s life.…

    • 1320 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The irony cannot be missed in Emily Dickenson's poem "Tell the Truth But Tell it Slant". This poem is read like a church hymn, advising the reader to not exactly tell the blunt truth if asked. Thus, in the cadence of very familiar moving religious tunes, Dickinson implores one to tell the truth, but to give it an angle that makes it more palatable to the listener. Dickinson either wished to dramatically touch the spiritual side of the individual as he read the poem, or she was totally irreverent concerning religion. Either interpretation serves to get the message across. Dickinson believes that most individuals do not possess the ability to handle truth with grace. Truth hurts. An example in its simplest form could be described as follows. An individual wishing to tell a significant other "I am sick of you! I do NOT want to date you anymore!" will find the message accepted more readily, and handled with more dignity if, in the telling, the truth is couched in a little white lie. "I don't deserve a wonderful person like you; I could not ever be good enough for you, and since you ought to have someone much better than me; I am going to step out of your life and allow you to find someone more worthy of your wonderful qualities." The truth, put into a sugar coated "line," is less emotionally damaging and the receiver of the bad news will possibly remain more composed and self confident than hearing the truth. Therefore, the truth, bent, is less harsh to the listener. Truth is personified, giving it a life of its own in Dickinson's poem. The irony of a hymn-like poem suggesting the "darker edge of truth" gives an eerie quality to the very honesty of Dickinson's revelation. Then again, perhaps a hymn is what our world needs to face possible…

    • 313 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Do Not Go Gentle

    • 593 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The second stanza adds a new layer to the poem, expressing his ideas on how life should be lived. Thomas writes, “Though wise men at their end know dark is right, because their words had forked no lightning.” This passage instructs people to make an impact before they die and criticizes those who do not accomplish this. Using the personification of ‘words,’ he says some people deserve to die because they have not said or done anything meaningful in their life. He also makes the reader fear that they have not ‘forked lightning’ with their words, which creates a desire in the reader to have a meaningful life and make an impact on the world.…

    • 593 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    2. How does the soul react to the chariots and the emperor? 3. After the soul chooses one society, she sometimes does what? 4. What can you infer about the soul from the words shuts, unmoved, and close? 5. What does the language of the poem demonstrate about the poet? 6. What does the soul determine about a person? “This is my letter to the World” 7. What does the ending of “This is my letter to the World” reveal about the speaker? 8. What can you infer from the lines “Her Message is committed / To Hands I cannot see—”? 9. Which lines in “This is my letter to the World” relate to the poet’s reclusive nature? 10. What is the speaker referring to in “for love of Her—Sweet—countrymen—”? “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant” 11. According to the speaker what is the nature of truth? 12. How does the speaker in say the truth should be revealed? 13. According to the speaker what is slant truth? 14. To what does Dickinson compare truth? “Success is counted sweetest” 15. According to the speaker what has been the experience of the people who value success the most? 16. What does the nectar symbolize? 17. Describe the tone of the poem. 18. What aspect of Dickinson’s own life might have she been commenting on in this poem? 19. Dickinson uses a straightforward, neutral tone to emphasize what fact from the speaker? 20. Which image appeals most strongly to the sense of sound?…

    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Why Are Lies Wrong

    • 722 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Lies are commonly told to protect others emotions and their self-esteem, yet lies still are seen as wrong. So why is it so hard sometimes to handle the truth? Isn’t it better to be hearing the truth than being lied to your face? Maybe the problem is not the lies themselves, but we as a people lacking the ability to understand the truth and its effects that it can have. This would require that we learn better ways to resolve conflicts and the capabilities to move on from those situations. We need to question, “Would I rather be deceived right now and have the conflict become worse later, or get it over with right now?” Once we learn the benefits of telling the truth and become capable of understanding these benefits then we will be able to live in a society of complete honesty.…

    • 722 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Oedipus Rex

    • 1089 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Have you ever heard the saying ‘’ the truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.’’ Well behind that there is another question, Is it always good to know the truth? Some say the truth will either break or make a person. Would you rather live your life in a bundle of lies and pretend to be happy? Or would you rather spend your life in shame and suffering because of the truth? It would be a guarantee the guilty feeling will not there because you told the truth. For when you are a child, to tell the truth was good we all were thought right from wrong, truth from lies but most of all the truth is always better than the lies. Take a minute and think on it, is it really always good to know the truth?…

    • 1089 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Emily Dickinson Pros/Cons

    • 1484 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In poetry, Dickinson is often fascinated by nature, death, pain, love and God. In her poems Dickinson often speaks elliptically. That said, when reading Dickinson's poems, we must dot the I's and cross the T's that we think are not L's. We must make our own interpretation because Emily would not have wanted us to interpret them at all. This is where the window is open to much criticism that maybe a pro or con to how others view Dickinson and her work. This is where we unknowingly hyperbolae words or phrases that should be litotilate.…

    • 1484 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Michael Salvucci Mrs. Comeau English 10 Honors Death, Pain, and the Pursuit of Peace Although Emily Dickinson’s poetry is profoundly insightful, her poems have a very confinedpan of subjects and themes. Most likely due to her early life and social reclusion, Dickinson’s poetry is limited to three major subjects: death, pain, and on a somewhat lighter note, nature. Dickinson’s poetry is greatly influenced by her early life as she led an extremely secluded and pessimisticlife. In her early adult years the poet spent one year studying at female seminary, from 1847 to 1848. Dickinson’s blunt pessimistic attitude is shown in a letter, written to a friend, as she says “I am not happy…Christ is calling everyone here, all my companions have answered, and I am standing alone in rebellion.” (Meltzer 20-21) The poets self-described rebellious manner can be acclaimed to her residence featuring many politically active and dominant men, as her brother, father and grandfather were all attorneys with interest in politics. Again in a letter to a friend written during a political convention, Dickinson wonders “why can’t [she] be a delegate in the convention?” as she says “[she] knows all about the tariff and the law.” (Sewall 64-65) She recognizes the gender barrier in society and as a result Dickinson develops a unique style of poetry. Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves And Immortality. (Lines 1-4) The speaker’s use of the word ‘kindly’ to describe death exemplifies his civil and considerate manner, but is his courteous character an illusion? Later in the poem the speaker writes: We slowly drove, he knew no haste, And I had put away My labor, and my leisure too, For his civility. (4-8) Because of death’s kindness in stopping for the speaker, she “put[s] away / [her] labor, and [her] leisure too,” (5-6), is death being true in taking her to heaven, or is he betraying her? There interposed a fly (9-12)…

    • 978 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is important that during the learning cycle each step is utilised to its fullest, this will benefit not only me as a trainer but the learner and relevant organisations.…

    • 370 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the second stanza Emily explains the woman’s slow ride. She expresses this in the line “We slowly drove He knew no haste.” Dickinson describes how death’s politeness makes the woman step back from everything keeping her busy. Dickinson shows this in the lines “And I had to put away my labor and my leisure too, for his civility.”…

    • 469 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Kite Runner

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “…better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie”. The Kite Runner shows how destructive secrets can be, especially to family relationships. Discuss.…

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Kraft Food

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages

    ➢ Kraft foods is the world second largest food company since it has the presence in 160 countries with 168 integrated factories, (Geographical presence of Kraft foods )…

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays