Charlie Thomson FOL Essay Emily Dickinson and Stephen Vincent Benet both wrote many stories and poems, but two had some connection to each other. “Tell all the Truth but Tell it Slant” and “By the Waters of Babylon” to be exact. They were very different in some ways, but similar in others. The two stories were similar in the sense that they both talked about the truth being powerful and that they both talked about not lying. No doubt the truth is a powerful thing, but both stories demonstrated how the truth is really powerful. In the Waters of Babylon there were a few lines that expressed truth’s power. One is, “Truth is a hard deer to hunt. If you eat too much you may die of the truth,” which meant that if you have a lot of truth to tell or not to tell in your mind and you just let it all out it could be too much for you or someone else. Tell too much truth and someone could get offended. That’s why in, Tell all the Truth it says, “The truth must dazzle gradually, or every man be blind,” You can tell all the truth, but take your time with it. If you tell all of it people can get shaken up and not believe what you said. They will be confused and maybe even offended depending on the truth. Really truth goes with the saying, “With great power, comes great responsibility”. It is a lot of power, but that can be controlled by telling it gradually not all at once. Lying should not be done if it doesn’t have to be. Both stories talk about telling the truth always, but sometimes lying should be used for example in, Tell all the Truth it has the line, “Tell all the truth, but tell it slant, success in circuit lies,” which meant that you don’t want to tell the flat out truth because that may be too much for someone and if you have to bring some lies into the truth to tell the person easily. “Success in circuit lies,” meant that if you use lies correctly in the truth then no one will get hurt. By the Waters of Babylon teaches this lesson a bit