"Much Madness is divinest Sense" by Emily Dickinson

Yes, I am daring to try to unravel the Dickinson poem.

I love the paradox presented in this poem. Lines 1 and 3 say "Madness is divinest Sense" and "Sense- the starkest Madness", which translates to "insanity is good sense, but good sense is insane". With the mention of a majority, I get the feeling that the speaker is trying to say that having an opinion that differs from the norm is a good thing. The speaker clearly does not like the majority opinion, whatever that may be. The last three lines of the poem state that if a person agrees with the majority, they are considered sane or correct. However, if they disagree with the majority, they are considered insane. The phrase "handled with a Chain" made me think that the majority was literally putting people in prison for having differing opinions, but I could be reading too much into that. Basically, the majority wants everyone to agree with them. and the speaker thinks that is wrong.

Maybe I didn't understand it completely, but I think I did pretty well for it being a Dickinson poem.

Until Next Time,
Alysse