BLOG 17: Emily Dickinson

The best thing about Emily Dickinson is that she wrote many short poems. Some deal with life and death, some with nature, some with the soul, and more. Writing many poems lets her cover more topics, and, although they are frequently short, they develop large ideas. In “Much Madness is divinest Sense”, Dickinson writes about how insightful people are the ones who are really mad, while madness is true understanding. She says: “Assent—and you are sane—demur you’re straightway dangerous—and handled with a chain” (Dickinson 442). She is saying that those who follow are normal, and those who disagree are the prisoners. The majority is setting what is sanity, but Dickinson is saying that the majority is not correct. In “This is my Letter to the World”, she writes that she wants to teach the things that nature taught her even though the world does not recognize her. This shows her interest in nature, her desire to bring others into its vicinity, and her want for others to “judge tenderly” of her (Dickinson 451).

Emily Dickinson definitely relates to Ralph Waldo Emerson on different topics. Regarding “Much Madness is divinest Sense”, Emerson’s writing in “Self-Reliance” provides some similarities; he said that “to be great is to be misunderstood” and, remarking on this, Brugman said: “while a strong individual is necessary for a strong society, a strong society crushes the individual who stands out as different” (Emerson). Dickinson’s poem expresses exactly this. Conformity equates to sanity and “demur” leads to punishment. One of Dickinson’s influences, Emerson clearly inspired some of her feelings toward nature. The ideas that she expresses in her poetry seem like direct descendents from Emerson.

The relation between “Much Madness is the divinest Sense” and Henry David Thoreau could be from a line in “Civil Disobedience that says “a minority is powerless when it conforms to the majority” or when he says that “the true place for a just man is also a prison.” The just man Thoreau speaks of is like the mad man in Dickinson’s poem because when they object they are both imprisoned. Dickinson’s view on nature from “This is my letter to the World” seems just as relatable to Thoreau as to Emerson because he also believed in learning from what it had to teach, which he explains in “Walden.”


Brugman, Patricia. "Individual and Society in 'Self-Reliance'." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=&iPin=ETL0377&SingleRecord=True

Dickinson, Emily. “Much Madness is the divinest Sense.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 442. Print.

Dickinson, Emily. “This is my Letter to the World.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 451. Print.


Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Self-Reliance." Ralph Waldo Emerson Texts. Web. 13 Feb. 2012.

Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - with Annotated Text." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.

Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Walden - an Annotated Edition." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 21 Feb. 2012.