The Truth In Emily Dickinson's Poem Tell All The Truth

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Poem “1129” encapsulates the brilliance of the truth that Dickinson talks about. The poem is rife with imagery proclaiming truth’s similarity to light stating, “Too bright for our infirm Delight / The Truth’s superb surprise,” (Citation). These lines evoke the image of bright light exploding in front of our eyelids that at first we cannot comprehend. However, these lines also contain a judgment on us by saying that the truth is too bright for our short attentions. To this end the poem continues “As lightning to the Children” (Citation) when the truth is flashed all at once it is perceived like lightning is to a frightened child; brilliant and terrifying, but it is soon forgotten. Dickinson goes on, “As lightning to the Children eased/ With …show more content…
Otherwise, the truth is too brilliant and blinding, and thus, man will act negatively towards it. This ties into the beginning of the poem, “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant --/ Success in Circuit lies,” (Citation). Here, Dickinson points out that success lies in the continuous movement of the truth, but one has to tell it at a “slant”. While telling the truth at a slant could mean to tell it from a certain perspective, here Dickinson means to tell it in such a way that the truth becomes a soothing and continuous explanation to the listener. This can be seen with the allusion to the children and the lightning that is made earlier in the poem. Those who have the truth told to them need to be comforted, but those who already have the truth are considered dangerous to those who do not want to see the …show more content…
The poem has a romantic sensibility in the way that madness and sense are qualified. The poem states “Much Madness is divinest Sense -- / To a discerning Eye -- / Much Sense – the starkest Madness --/ ‘Tis the Majority,” (Citation). In these lines, Dickinson means that to someone who cares to look closely what on the surface seems to be madness often is the truth, or sense, in its purest form. It takes a clever person to be able to pick out the truth from what seems like madness, but to the majority of people – those who must be gradually exposed to the truth – sense so pure must surely be madness. Then the poem is split by the line “In this, as All, prevail--” (Citation), this line unites the beginning with the end of the poem which is both very similar in their points, but this line is ambiguous. This line, in particular, is perplexing because it puts a positive slant on a situation that would otherwise be quite unpleasant. This line expresses that the one way that one can prevail or overcome the discomfort that is put upon you by the majority is by holding out hope for those select few with a “discerning Eye” (Citation) that can see your madness as most divine sense (Citation). One must prevail over the suffocating whims of the majority because if you “Demur – you’re straightway

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