All posts tagged Tell all the Truth but tell it slant

  • October 4, 2008

    Tell all the truth but…

    Tell all the Truth but tell it slant
    Emily Dickinson

    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–

    The poets know more than the rest of us.
    Not more facts, just more truth.
    Not many understand this but it’s true.
    It’s why the prophets were poets.
    In poetry the truth can be told slant.
    Not untrue, not as a lie, but mercifully slant.
    A safe refraction of truth’s blazing light. Read more

    6 Comments / Poetry /