Truth
Truth - meaning Summary
Truth as Contested Perception
The poem contrasts two portraits of truth: one traveller calls it a solid fortress offering a clear vantage, the other depicts it as a fleeting breath, shadow, or phantom. The speaker sides with the latter, admitting truth feels elusive and unreachable. The brief lyric stages a tension between certainty and uncertainty, implying that truth may be experienced as transitory and intangible rather than as an immutable, graspable reality.
Read Complete Analyses"Truth," said a traveller, "Is a rock, a mighty fortress; Often have I been to it, Even to its highest tower, From whence the world looks black." "Truth," said a traveller, "Is a breath, a wind, A shadow, a phantom; Long have I pursued it, But never have I touched The hem of its garment." And I believed the second traveller; For truth was to me A breath, a wind, A shadow, a phantom, And never had I touched The hem of its garment.
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