Madness is Divinest Sense: Emily Dickinson

            I enjoyed Emily Dickinson’s poetry because it had a different quality and taste compared to some of the other works we have discussed. She points out some of the ironies of life and contemplates some of the aspects of death and despair. Because most of her poems are incredibly short, she does a wonderful job being concise and getting to the point within two or three stanzas. I haven’t read much of her poetry but I thoroughly appreciated her style in writing her poems.

            I was intrigued by the poem “I like a look of Agony.” It seems that often people hide their emotions and you can never really tell what they are feeling. People smile when they are happy; they smile when they are angry. You can fake a smile, but it is much harder to fake an emotion like agony. If you see someone who convulses their face while experiencing an emotion as strong as anguish, you know exactly what they are feeling because “men do not sham Convulsion.” The poem is interesting because it has a sense of morbidity but I think it has a quality that most of us can identify with.

            The other poem that I liked quite a bit was “Much Madness is divinest Sense.” It seems illogical that madness could be sensible or sense could be madness, but Dickinson gives us evidence on the contrary. Dickinson seems to be advocating some aspects of nonconformity in this short poem. Society often calls people mad if they break away from the norm. But it is also most often the people that break away from the norm who discover the most important advances or create the works of art that we revere today. If no one were to break away and risk being called “mad,” we would not be able to take strides in advancement. Under this assumption, it becomes the “sane” that have the “starkest Madness” because they never challenge themselves. Unfortunately, the majority of people continue to operate under the idea: “Demur – you’re straightway dangerous.”

            I liked Dickinson’s work because of the sardonic insight and irony that she utilizes throughout her various pieces. Although there is the definite sense of morbidity in many of the poems about death, the morbid ideas have a purpose in proving Dickinson’s point about life and the finality that lies in death. Dickinson’s ideas challenge the societal norms and go against the grain.