Much madness is divinest sense
To a discerning eye;
Much sense the starkest madness.
‘T is the majority
In this, as all, prevails.
Assent, and you are sane;
Demur,—you’re straightway dangerous,
And handled with a chain.
Credits
Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) was an American poet whose reclusive life in Amherst, Massachusetts belied the radical boldness of her verse. Only a handful of her nearly 1,800 poems were published during her lifetime, making the fearless social critique embedded in "Much Madness is Divinest Sense" all the more striking — written by a woman who herself lived far outside the boundaries of conventional expectation.
