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Much madness is divinest sense

Emily Dickinson

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.

Of note

On April 22, 1998, former poet laureate Robert Hass read this poem aloud in the East Room of the White House, at an evening of American poetry where Rita Dove and Robert Pinsky also read Dickinson.

Poetry Tale: The Girl Who Wouldn’t Be Saved

FREE AND OPEN: Hello Doggo’s music, recordings and artwork: CC0 1.0, credit optional. The source poem has its own rights status: Poem is public domain.

TEXT PROVENANCE · First published 12 November 1890 in Poems by Emily Dickinson · Text from Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete, a Project Gutenberg compilation of the 1890, 1891, and 1896 series.

Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete

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