A Secret Told
poem 381
A Secret Told - meaning Summary
Fear Better Than Betrayal
The poem contrasts the effects of revealing a secret with those of keeping it. When a secret is told, it loses its private power; when it is kept, even if it causes fear or anguish for the keeper, that fear preserves the secret's existence and impact. Dickinson suggests that sustained internal dread is preferable to the loss and exposure that follow disclosure, and that the harm of confiding may extend both to the secret itself and to the confidant. The poem weighs privacy against relief and betrayal.
Read Complete AnalysesA Secret told Ceases to be a Secret then A Secret kept That can appal but One Better of it continual be afraid Than it And Whom you told it to beside
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