The poem “Much Madness is divinest Sense” by Emily Dickinson is written in the spirit of transcendentalist beliefs, and in the voice of someone who has long since stopped believing that conformity and normativity was the way to live any true life. In it, the narrator lays down their three truths: One, that in madness is the truest sensibility found; Two, that the “sense” that the majority of society possess is indeed “the starkest madness”; and finally, Three, that however much one believes in the aforementioned truths, that to society if you assent to its madness of mundanity you are sane, but if you choose to vocally disagree you are labeled dangerous without haste and handled as if you were wrapped in a chain. (1,3,4-8). Dickinson gives …show more content…
The lines have a near constant pattern, in which she states something, and then adds commentary on it immediately following; “Much madness is divinest sense - to a discerning eye” (1-2), and “Demur- you’re straightway dangerous- and handled with a chain” (7-8). Dickinson also spends a portion of her poem acknowledging the possible absurdity of her words to an average person “Much Madness is divinest Sense- to a discerning eye” (1-2), an important line in the poem that shows the author's belief that only an assumably small proportion of people wise enough to discern harsh truths from blissful ignorances would agree with her. An important part of the author's unusual poetry style is the irregular capitalization of words that are important to the poem. Examples include “Madness - Sense” (1), “Sense - Madness” (3), (capitalizations that serve to subtly hint at the words closer connectedness) and the capitalization of the word “Eye” (2) in the second line that shows the author's intent to express that the word eye isn’t meant to be taken as the literal photosensitive organ we all possess, but to a metaphorical Eye, one that sees beyond what is in front of it and transcends