17 pages • 34 minutes read
Emily DickinsonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Dashes are a signature punctuation symbol throughout Dickinson’s repertoire. Dickinson uses dashes in different ways, depending on the poem. For example, some dashes create a pause for emphasis, whereas others replace punctuation (Khabarov, Kristina. “Dickinson’s Use of Dashes.” Great Works of Literature. 2019). Both functions are at work for “Tell all the truth but tell it slant,” as seen at the end of Lines 1 and 8, where they follow the words “slant” and “blind.” The dashes function as a pause and a period, and they are the only punctuation marks in the entire poem. In addition, by adding an intentional pause, the reader focuses on both the how (how to tell the truth) and the what (the outcome if the truth is told unfettered). Dickinson also utilizes their placement in the first and last line as the architecture of the poem, encasing a carefully contrived, dualistic narrative.
Dashes are not the only motif present in Dickinson’s poems. She uses capital letters in ways that seem initially arbitrary, until the reader gives a second look. With the exception of the first letter of each line, Dickinson capitalizes the following words: Success (Line 2), Circuit (Line 2), Delight (Line 3),Truth (Line 4), Lightning and Children (Line 5), and Truth (Line 7).
By Emily Dickinson
A Bird, came down the Walk
Emily Dickinson
A Clock stopped—
Emily Dickinson
A narrow Fellow in the Grass (1096)
Emily Dickinson
Because I Could Not Stop for Death
Emily Dickinson
"Faith" is a fine invention
Emily Dickinson
Fame Is a Fickle Food (1702)
Emily Dickinson
Hope is a strange invention
Emily Dickinson
"Hope" Is the Thing with Feathers
Emily Dickinson
I Can Wade Grief
Emily Dickinson
I Felt a Cleaving in my Mind
Emily Dickinson
I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain
Emily Dickinson
If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking
Emily Dickinson
If I should die
Emily Dickinson
If you were coming in the fall
Emily Dickinson
I heard a Fly buzz — when I died
Emily Dickinson
I'm Nobody! Who Are You?
Emily Dickinson
Much Madness is divinest Sense—
Emily Dickinson
Success Is Counted Sweetest
Emily Dickinson
The Only News I Know
Emily Dickinson
There is no Frigate like a Book
Emily Dickinson