Thursday, September 23, 2010

Yet Another Jewel from Dickinson

So, I open my lit book to the first page on our list, and what do I see?
Emily Dickinson's poem Much Madness is divinest Sense staring back at me.
It -- had -- lots -- of -- dashes, and things -- of -- that -- sort.
Burning this book?  No longer a last resort.

Alrighty.  Dickinson in the house.  It wasn't my favorite poem, but it was fairly easy to analyze.  In examining the poem we realize that its premise is paradoxical (#13), because she states that madness (as in crazy) is "divinest Sense", and yet having "Much Sense" is "the starkest Madness."  Throughout the poem, Dickinson refers more positively to the first rather than the latter, indicating that she believes the book smart of the world are simply conforming and that if one is not referred to as insane, they are not truly sensible.  This all seemed really pointless to me, because we all know Dickinson was a crazy shut-in no life in the first place.

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