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Literature Annotations

Dickinson, Emily Much madness is divinest sense

	On-Line Text
Genre	Poem
Keywords	Individuality, Mental Illness, Rebellion, Society
Summary	The narrator distinguishes between madness and sanity: the beliefs of the majority constitute sanity, whereas those who dissent are considered insane.
Commentary	For a modern, beautifully written, and absorbing elaboration of this idea, see Girl, Interrupted, an autobiographical account of psychiatric hospitalization, by Susanna Kaysen (Turtle Bay Books, Div. of Random House, New York, N.Y., 1993) (see this database).
Source	Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson
Publisher	Avenal
Edition	1982
Editors	Mabel Loomis Todd & T. W. Higginson
Place Published	New York
Miscellaneous	First published: 1890
Annotated by	Aull, Felice and Chen, Irene
Date of Entry	11/15/93
Last Revised	05/07/01