10 Sep: "Much Madness is divinist Sense-" by Emily Dickinson
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 -
by Emily Dickinson
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I posted this poem because it lives the contrast between Dickinson and Plath for me- and I realized just now that I love them both for different reasons- Dickinson plays the role of the "witness", of a more enlightened thinker...seeing from the outside in, referencing the view from above all the while she is living it. She sees the Madness and the Sense and can understand that depending on the eyes you look through each could, indeed, by divine or stay starkly Mad. Plath, lived life and death from the inside out. She was a victim of the present moment to future, feeling and thinking everything from her own body, emotions and traps- as if nobody else could dare be experiencing the same. I love her because I don't feel those things in my own life...and it makes me understand the battles that people could face. Dickinson relates experiences while Plath solos them out. The light and the dark. They could each talk about the same exact subject, in this case- madness, and Dickinson could play with it- twirl it around on her finger and laugh at its tendencies, and Plath would clutch it in her hand and eat it raw.
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