1129, By Emily Dickinson

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--

From “The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson,” edited by Thomas H. Johnson (Back Bay Books /Little, Brown: 770 pp., $16.95)