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, …showed first 75 words of 1204 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1204 total…to get the point across using different techniques and descriptive words. This contrast may have to do with the background and influences in each of the poet’s lives. Dickinson was able to be humorous and ironic in her writings while Hughes tended to be more serious. Hughes, coming from a very hard life and experiences, probably did not have the ability or capability of making jokes regarding the situation and events in his works.