Emily Dickinson is the author of the riddle-like lyric “Much Madness is divinest Sense,” which she wrote around 1862 but didn’t publish during her lifetime. Now one of the most commonly read poets in the Western literary canon, Dickinson published only a small number of poems when she was alive, doing so anonymously. Distancing herself from society, Dickinson stayed in her Amherst, Massachusetts, family home, where she saw select people, wrote copious letters, and composed almost 2,000 poems—many of which she sewed into small packets or booklets now called “fascicles.” She didn’t title her poems, so the first lines of all of her works became their respective titles. As with her other poems, “Much Madness is divinest Sense” features Dickinson’s peculiar capitalization and jarring dashes. The poem sends the message that what is rational isn’t objective but is determined by the majority, and it tackles themes like “Madness” Versus Sense, Conformity Versus Singularity, and The Right to Punish. The poem is one of Dickinson’s more popular poems, and it appears often in anthologies.

Note: The poem uses the term “madness” not as a legitimate mental health diagnosis but to express how the masses tend to unfairly characterize and treat people who don’t conform, namely, as “dangerous” (Line 7) and lacking in “Sense” (Lines 1, 3).

Poet Biography

Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts. She was a middle child, with an older brother, Austin, and a younger sister, Lavinia, nicknamed “Vinnie.” The Dickinson children grew up in a privileged setting, as their family was prestigious in their community. According to Cynthia Wolff’s biography Dickinson (1986), their grandfather built the first brick house in Amherst and helped create Amherst College. Their father was a successful politician and lawyer, and their mother came from a well-off farming family.

As a young person, Dickinson attended good schools and was social, attending parties and expressing interest in one day getting married. Beginning in her mid-twenties, however, she distanced herself from the outside world and stayed in her family home, where she read, wrote, and interacted face-to-face with few people. Dickinson didn’t marry, and her affluent circumstances meant she didn’t have to work. Her central activity was reading and writing, and she wrote nearly 1,800 poems on whatever scrap paper she had, including bills, envelopes, and so on. The poems were often difficult to read and lacked titles and dates.

After Dickinson passed away in 1886 from Bright’s disease, characterized by kidney problems, high blood pressure, and heart disease, her sister, Vinnie, discovered her poems. However, Susan Gilbert, Austin’s wife, whom Dickinson was close to, declined to help Vinnie publish them. Instead, Mabel Loomis Todd (a writer and scholar who had an affair with Austin) transcribed and edited over 600 of the poems. Todd attempted to make Dickinson’s poems more accessible and less puzzling to a general audience. She replaced Dickinson’s many dashes with commas and standardized her capitalization.

An accurate record of Dickinson’s work didn’t appear until 1955 when author Thomas Johnson edited this compendium, along with the rest of Dickinson’s work. He numbered Dickinson’s poems based on the order in which he believed she wrote them. He assigned the poem “Much Madness is divinest Sense” number 435. In 1998, R. W. Franklin published what many believe to be the most accurate collection of Dickinson’s work, and he gave the poem the number 620.

Poem text

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 —

Dickinson, Emily. “Much Madness is divinest Sense.” 1862. Poetry Foundation.

Summary

The poem starts with a declaration: “Much Madness is divinest Sense —” (Line 1), meaning that what people think of as irrational or foolish can actually have the utmost logic. The speaker adds, “To a discerning Eye” (Line 2). Not everyone can detect the reason behind supposedly unreasonable behavior, but if a person possesses keen judgment, they can see that the bewildering conduct is quite sensible.

The speaker then makes a second declaration: “Much Sense — the starkest Madness” (Line 3). The speaker more or less flips the first statement. What seems rational can be deeply unreasonable. The speaker adds, “’Tis the Majority / In this, as all, prevail —” (Lines 4-5). Whatever most people define as “sense” and “madness” triumphs. An objective source doesn’t determine the meaning of these words: The applicable community decides, just like they have the final say on all other matters.

If people “[a]ssent” (Line 6) and go along with the majority, they are deemed “[s]ane” (Line 6) and rational. However, if a person deviates from the majority opinion on reasonable behavior, they’re considered a threat or “straightway dangerous” (Line 7). The community in question will then punish the dissenting person and handle them “with a Chain” (Line 8). They’ll lock them up or restrict them, as the majority doesn’t want a “mad” person upsetting their beliefs.