After reading both Tell All the Truth but Tell It Slant by Emily Dickinson and Harlem by Langston Hughes, I determined that the main difference between the two poems is both poets use of diction. Dickinson makes use of abstract diction in her poem, using words like bright, delight, superb, and dazzle. Using the word truth in itself is an enormous abstraction. Hughes, however, uses more concrete diction, with words such as raisin, fester, sore, meat, and load. These are actual, physical things that exist. I see this as the most significant difference between the two poems. At first glance, Dickinsons poem made no sense to me. I then, however, tore it apart and came up with the following explication. Line one basically states tell me the whole truth, but dont be so direct. Dont just come out and say it. In line two, when the speaker refers to a circuit, she is most likely comparing the way they tell the truth to the way circuits wind their way around a room, mostly hidden, but getting their job done. Lines three and four are saying the direct truth may be too much to handle, such as the sun may be too bright to look at directly. Lines five and six are telling this person to explain the truth like one might explain lightning to a child, with a kind, soothing tone of voice thats easy to understand. Lines seven and eight say that the truth must come a little at a time, or gradually, so that it may leave us in some suspense, rather than hitting us all at once and leaving us unable to comprehend the whole truth for what it is. Dickinsons use of alliteration shows in the poem, especially in lines one, two, four, and seven, where she uses words in pairs, such as tell, truth, success, circuit, the, truth, superb, and surprise. The author also uses an a b c b rime scheme. Langston Hughess poem Harlem was bit easier to explicate because of his use of concrete diction. The first line is simply an introduction into the poem, which in itself is a po...
