Conformity and Rebellion Poem: Kelsey Halbert

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 -

Much madness is divinest sense is a poem that supports being the person you really are despite societal expectations. Dickinson was an odd character herself. She rarely ever titled her poems, there is barely ever a steady meter in her writings, there is no setting, and there is no information about the narrator as a whole. She wants us to use our imagination similar to how her writing has imagination. There is no concrete detail that everyone will understand, every person that reads this poem will understand it differently, like how she wants people to be in general: different. People should not settle for conformity, they should strive to be different. They should discover new things everyday, go on adventures. No one should do the same things day after day.