Tell all the truth but tell it slant —

We dipped into the sound cloud a little in "Form and Meter." We couldn't help ourselves, the ballad made us do it. The way Dickinson uses form and meter contributes in a big way to the sound of the poem. So does the rhyme scheme. The daDUM daDUM daDUM of the meter ("Success in Circuit lies") combined with the end rhymes like "kind" and "blind" make for a tightly woven soundscape.

Dickinson uses a few tricks besides the form and meter to make sure all the fireworks are sounding at full blast. Check out her use of sibilance, which is just another way to say the alliteration of the S sound ("Success in Circuit" and "superb surprise"). It sure makes for some smooth sailing (yes, we can do it, too) through those lines. And if you weren't already impressed by her sound skills, she also throws in an example of internal rhyme in line 3—"bright" rhymes with "Delight"—for good measure. We're pretty sure she's covered just about all the sound bases in just eight short lines.

So what's the end result of all this sound kung-fu coming at us? Mainly, these sound techniques are there to ease our mind's ear (if you can picture that) along through the poem. The speaker's advice to take it easy with the truth plays out in the poem's use of sound techniques to gently, smoothly bring the reader along in this sweet-sounding affair.