"Much Madness is divinest Sense" by Emily Dickinson
This poem skillfully explains, utilizing paradoxes, a social phenomenon that many great revolutionary men like Galileo and Columbus suffered from. According to Dickinson, "Much Madness is divinest Sense" which means that insanity, or questioning that which is accepted as true, is actually the best gauge of sanity and good sensibilities (Dickinson 830). However, she also reasons that only wise men with "a discerning Eye" will realize this (Dickinson 830). The majority of people, lacking this special ability of discernment, will see a questioning of the truth as madness. Thus, when Galileo and Columbus argued the theories of heliocentricity and a spherical planet, respectively, they were thought mad because they had gone against the accepted knowledge of the time. The majority of their contemporaries had seen their "Much Sense" as "the starkest Madness" (Dickinson 830). Therefore, this poem encourages all people to question what is blindly accepted, but to do so cautiously. The final three lines of the poem offer a warning to accompany its call to action. Line nine, put simply, says that those who agree with the majority will be thought sane. In contrast, line ten acknowledges how insane one will be thought if he challenges accepted knowledge. The poem goes so far as to say those who question the norm will be "handled with a Chain" (Dickinson 830). However, no new discoveries or advancements would be made if the world was void of these supposedly insane men.
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