This note is about the three poems of Emily Dickinson in which the word slant occurs. I would reproduce them here, were it not that Harvard can be a trifle touchy about its arrangements of this poet’s work. You will find good texts in the edition of Johnson or that of Franklin, and acceptable ones online. The poems are: “There’s a certain Slant of light,”;[1] “Give little Anguish -”;[2] and “Tell all the truth but tell it slant -”.[3]

Apollo is present in these poems: bright god, heavy punisher, musician, helper; and, especially, riddling prophet, giver of oracles easily and fatally misunderstood—for he tells the truth slant. As prophet the Greeks call him Loxias (Λοξίας), a name which resembles, and may derive from, the adjective loxos (λόξος), “slant,” “oblique.” It is natural to suppose that the god is so styled in allusion to his indirection, and Lucian all but says as much, having Momus call Apollo “loxos and riddling in [his] oracles.”[4] Now I wonder, did Dickinson know that his very appellation could make him “slant”? She probably had, at most, only enough Greek to read parts of the New Testament; but in translations of plays she could well have come across the curious name, perhaps explained in Lucian’s way by a commentator, or by a teacher interested in the theme of prophecy, so important to Christians. To be sure, her classical education having acquainted her with Apollo, she was quite capable of calling him “slant” on her own. Well, even if the poetical word was her own invention, I console myself with se non è vero,…

[1] Johnson no. 258, Franklin 320.

[2] Johnson 310, Franklin 422.

[3] Johnson 1129, Franklin 1263.

[4] Zeus Tragoedus, Ζεὺς τραγωιδός 28: σὺ ἐν τοῖς χρησμοῖς λοξὸς ὢν καὶ γριφώδης…