Race, Gender, and Class in Emily Dickinson’s Poetry

Sun 1 Race, Gender, and Class in Emily Dickinson’s Poetry Emily Dickinson is regarded as one of the most important American poets in the country’s history. Indeed, the story of her poetic practice is particularly intriguing because she was not a poet who got her recognition while she was still alive. Instead, it was only after her death that critics and enthusiasts alike reckoned with the profound insights that often characterized her poetry. It is worth noting that Dickinson’s reclusive nature cannot be separated from her attempt to develop a writing practice as white, upper-class woman.

Furthermore, the time in which she wrote also contributes to an understanding of how her gender affected her choice of subjects. In the following sections, there shall be an analysis of the ways in which Dickinson’s gender and social class might have informed her poems titled “Tell all the Truth but Tell it Slant.”

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In “Tell all the Truth but Tell it Slant,” the persona attempts to develop a thesis on truth-telling. As the poem begins, the persona acknowledges that when attempting to tell the truth, success only comes when one does it in a circuitous manner. Here, the implication is that the truth is often difficult to relate to other people. As such, whenever a person is tasked with the responsibility of telling the truth, they should do it in a manner that will ensure it is taken in the best possible way (Hetherington & Atherton 11). Dickinson also compares truth telling to the manner in which the strength of lightning is often told to children in a manner that will not scare them. In concluding the stanza, the person then notes that if the truth were not relayed in a gentle manner, it has the capacity to leave “every man blind.” As such, to avoid this situation, the truth should be relayed in a manner that “dazzles gradually.”

It is arguable that Dickinson’s main case is that human beings are not able to handle too much reality. In this regard, every attempt to awaken them to how the world really operates has to be done in a gradual manner. There are several ways in which Dickinson’s poem can be used as an entry point into understanding the manner in which she navigated being female and being a creative person. In the period when Dickinson was writing poetry,

Sun 3 female artists were not taken as seriously as their male counterparts. As such, they had to resort to the sort of measures that Dickinson took in order to make lasting work. In this regard, one could argue that in “Tell all the Truth but Tell it Slant,” Dickinson may have also been referring to the fact that, as a woman artist, one’s artistic interventions had to be introduced to the public slowly.

The other way that one could use gender relations to understand “Tell all the Truth but Tell it Slant” is through the fact that convincing the American public that women artists could also create compelling work had to be done in a strategic manner. To a public and a literary field that privileged the voices of male artists, a woman artist could not use the same methods that male artists typically used. Instead, talented artists like Emily Dickinson would have to resort to writing poetry in secret if they wanted to retain their artistic freedom (Cavillo 540). Furthermore, they would have to resort to a reclusive life so that they would not be judged for not living according to the social mores of the time.

At the time that Emily Dickinson was writing poetry, women had a particular role to play in society. While men could live public lives in society, women’s lives were mostly limited to the domestic space. As such, there came to be a separation between the public and private sphere. In light of the fact that being a woman writer consisted of being in the public eye, there was bound to be resistance if Dickinson had shown the public who she really was.

As such, her strategy to keep writing and allow her writing only to be published after her death could have been an embodiment of the idea that new things should be introduced to society in a slow manner (Cavillo 543).

It is also noteworthy that when it comes to social prejudice, one’s social class does not necessarily guarantee that one will not face oppression on account of their gender (Bannerji 90). In the case of Emily Dickinson, the fact that she belonged to the upper class did not protect her from a society that did not take her talents seriously. In order to be given the same

Sun 4 respect that her male artist counterparts were being given, she would have to publish anonymously so that no person would be able to ascertain her gender.

The issue of race also becomes critical in so far as Dickinson is concerned. Just as women artists during her time were not being given their due accord in society, people who belonged to racial minorities would also find it difficult to have their work taken seriously.

Indeed, as Todd Emerson notes, even where the work was published, it was likely to be praised for its anthropological value and not its literary merits (Todd 132). For this reason, racial prejudice worked in a similar manner to sexism when it came to the visibility and acceptance of writers in the USA. To this extent, then, one could raise questions regarding the manner in which social change can occur in society. According to “Tell all the Truth but Tell it Slant,” anything that is based on truth-telling has to be done gradually so that society is not overwhelmed by the proposed changes. Indeed, if Dickinson’s poem were to be taken literally, then lasting change would only come gradually.

Even so, it is possible to critique the extent to which the poem and what it advocates for could be said to always be the answer to social change. While some truth-telling attempts may need to be done gradually, there are certain cases where truth-telling cannot wait. In cases where the oppression or marginalization of people is ongoing, it may be necessary to deliver hard truths to society as and when they occur. Indeed, one could argue that if truthtelling had been done earlier in American society, Dickinson would not have felt that she needed to be a recluse in order to have a writing career. Instead, it would have been possible to criticize the manner in which society treated women who wanted to have public lives (Todd 77). Ultimately, one could argue that Dickinson’s poetry – and her poem “Tell all the Truth but Tell it Slant” in particular – was a reflection of the position she occupied in society.

Her gender, race, and class influenced not only how she navigated her world, but also how she carried on with her writing career.

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Sun 6 Works Cited Bannerji, Himani. "Politics and the Writing of History." The Ideological Condition: Selected Essays on History, Race and Gender. Brill, 2020. 81-93.

Cavallo, Susana. "Emily Dickinson and Flannery O’Connor: Lives Beyond Convention." English Studies 100.5 (2019): 539-551.

Hetherington, Paul, and Cassandra Atherton. "‘Tell All the Truth but Tell it Slant'’: Poetic Truth and Indirectness." Axon: Creative Explorations 10.1 (2020): 1-12.

Todd, John Emerson. Emily Dickinson's use of the persona. De Gruyter Mouton, 2020.