On a Dickinson poem
This is one of my favorite poems by Emily Dickinson because I think it explains a feminine attitude to men: favoring subtleness, obliqueness, and all.
“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 —”
When teaching, I asked a class what Dickinson might have meant by “circuit” in the poem. One student mentioned his other class dealing with electronics. Maybe. But I think the poet was reversing the old saw that the fastest path between two points is a straight line.