Tell all the truth but tell it slant
Metadata
Highlights
- This process of locating the reader in more than one place, the “slant” view, the “unguessed relationship” that makes “something not sayable” sayable, is a means by which the poet, and therefore her reader, gains access to knowledge that is greater than what is directly expressed in a poem. (View Highlight)
- Like the best speculative fiction, good poems weird the truth, rearrange it, re-present it, cause us to re-envision the past, to rememory (to borrow Toni Morrison’s word) our own history. How do they do this? For one thing, they subvert our expectations and also reward them. These poems give us what we want, but they also give us what we don’t yet know we need. The transition from one to the next can be uncomfortable because it is simultaneously obvious and surprising. (View Highlight)
- Consistency breeds apathy. The beauty of repetition lies in the occasional disruption of repetition: Expectation and reward. Expectation and reward. Expectation, expectation. Surprise! A writer might build a little nest in a poem, a comfortable place for the reader’s mind to rest (the material for this nest might be rhyme, might be repetition of words or phrases, might be consistency of images or ideas), but even as she makes this space of comfort, she must be aware that too much comfort breeds disinterest. (View Highlight)
- Even if you weren’t listening to the words, you could hear the music of them—like the songs we sing our children, the lyrics of which are often quite dark and distressing, though the melodies sound nice. This is a way to raise the threat of danger in the midst of calm. It is also a way to create calm in the midst of danger. Create a pattern, reward that pattern, and disrupt that pattern—but rather than leaving the poem in that state of disruption, return to the pattern. (View Highlight)
- To attend to the world carefully is to attend to the world more slowly, more painstakingly, and without waste. Atwood’s little poem, like the others I’ve shared, changes the way we come to understand the world. That’s one of the most important things a poem can do. (View Highlight)
title: “Tell all the truth but tell it slant”
author: “Camille T. Dungy”
url: ”https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/70128/tell-it-slant”
date: 2023-12-19
source: reader
tags: media/articles
Tell all the truth but tell it slant
Metadata
Highlights
- This process of locating the reader in more than one place, the “slant” view, the “unguessed relationship” that makes “something not sayable” sayable, is a means by which the poet, and therefore her reader, gains access to knowledge that is greater than what is directly expressed in a poem. (View Highlight)
- Like the best speculative fiction, good poems weird the truth, rearrange it, re-present it, cause us to re-envision the past, to rememory (to borrow Toni Morrison’s word) our own history. How do they do this? For one thing, they subvert our expectations and also reward them. These poems give us what we want, but they also give us what we don’t yet know we need. The transition from one to the next can be uncomfortable because it is simultaneously obvious and surprising. (View Highlight)
- Consistency breeds apathy. The beauty of repetition lies in the occasional disruption of repetition: Expectation and reward. Expectation and reward. Expectation, expectation. Surprise! A writer might build a little nest in a poem, a comfortable place for the reader’s mind to rest (the material for this nest might be rhyme, might be repetition of words or phrases, might be consistency of images or ideas), but even as she makes this space of comfort, she must be aware that too much comfort breeds disinterest. (View Highlight)
- Even if you weren’t listening to the words, you could hear the music of them—like the songs we sing our children, the lyrics of which are often quite dark and distressing, though the melodies sound nice. This is a way to raise the threat of danger in the midst of calm. It is also a way to create calm in the midst of danger. Create a pattern, reward that pattern, and disrupt that pattern—but rather than leaving the poem in that state of disruption, return to the pattern. (View Highlight)
- To attend to the world carefully is to attend to the world more slowly, more painstakingly, and without waste. Atwood’s little poem, like the others I’ve shared, changes the way we come to understand the world. That’s one of the most important things a poem can do. (View Highlight)