In the poem Truth by Gwendolyn Brooks uses metaphors and personification to expand the poem’s meaning. The fear of truth is essentially the main idea of the poem. Brooks uses the sun as a metaphor for truth. She personifies truth as harsh. The truth bears a “fierce hammering/of his firm knuckles.” The truth is not pleasant and comes with “fierce hammering” on the “door” of our consciousness.
In a “session with shade” or a time spent in ignorance, people will generally wish for the “sun” or truth. They will "weep" for him …they will "pray" all through the night-years”
but when the truth actually comes, they will “flee/ into the shelter, the dear thick shelter/ of the familiar/ propitious haze.” In this case, the familiarity of haze is favorable. “Sweet is it/ to sleep in the coolness/ of snug unawareness” means that not knowing the truth is more comfortable. If you make up your own truth, you can never be hurt. Brooks uses shade and shelter as a comfortable ignorance. Although people want the truth, they are afraid of it when it actually comes. Two cliches can be applied to this poem: “The truth hurts” and “Ignorance is bliss.”
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