Tell all the Truth...

Tell all the Truth...

Tell all the truth but tell it slant—
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind—

Reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of Amherst College fromThe Poems of Emily Dickinson, Ralph W. Franklin, ed., Cambridge, Mass: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1998 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © 1951, 1955, 1979, 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.