Much Madness is divinest Sense - (620)
BY EMILY DICKINSON
Much Madness is divinest Sense -
To a discerning Eye -
Much Sense - the starkest Madness -
’Tis the Majority
In this, as all, prevail -
Assent - and you are sane -
Demur - you’re straightway dangerous -
And handled with a Chain –
Rather than being “rebellion against what [a person] is,”
many poems serve as a return to the truest thoughts and feelings of a person.
Theses writings, such as Emily Dickinson’s poem Much Madness is divine sense, illustrate the importance of this
self-understanding, even if it goes against what society considers normal and
sane.
While her opening line sets the premise for the rest of the
poem—that what society considers improper or incorrect can actually make a
great deal of sense—the second line highlights that it often takes careful examination
of a person’s thoughts and surroundings to find this discrepancy. Just as some
sense can be found in so-called madness, many ideas that we accept without
question fall apart upon closer inspection. Dickinson says it herself—“’Tis the
Majority / In this, as all, prevail”—that
far more sheep than rebels exist in this world. In most cases, conformity will
be rewarded, and dissonance muffled and silenced. But an unspoken question lies in the
second to last line: Demur,* raise doubt and suspicion, and then to whom are you really dangerous? While nonconformity may be singled out
(“And handled with a chain—“), these single actions can add up towards real
change if properly coordinated and executed
.
*(I wonder if the proximity to the word demure was intentional:
adjective
- (of a woman or her behavior) reserved, modest, and shy.
- oh, what a difference one letter makes.)
Dickinson, Emily. "Much Madness Is Divinest Sense - (620)." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, 1 Jan. 1951. Web. 6 Nov. 2014.
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