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In her own words

Tell all the truth but tell it slant

Emily Dickinson · 1830-1886

Tell all the truth but tell it slant –Success in Circuit liesToo bright for our infirm delightThe truth's superb surpriseAs Lightning to the Children easedWith explanation kindThe truth must dazzle graduallyOr every man be blind –

See it in her own handAmherst College, Archives & Special Collections

The poems here are transcribed from Dickinson's own manuscripts, which are in the public domain. Her dashes, capital letters, and spellings are kept as she wrote them, so these read differently from the smoothed versions printed after her death. The manuscript images are reproduced courtesy of the libraries that hold them: the Boston Public Library (no known copyright restrictions), Amherst College Archives and Special Collections (free for non-commercial and educational use, with credit), and the Houghton Library at Harvard University, whose policy permits publishing images of its public-domain holdings. The modern dash-faithful scholarly editions remain under copyright and are not used here.