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by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

Much madness is divinest sense
Language: English 
Our translations:  FRE GER GER
Much madness is divinest sense
To a discerning eye;
Much sense the starkest madness.
'Tis the majority
In this, as all, prevails.
Assent, and you are sane,
Demur, - you're straightaway dangerous,
And handled with a chain.

Available sung texts:   ← What is this?

•   J. Langert 

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Text Authorship:

  • by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems of Emily Dickinson, first published 1890 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Robert F. Baksa (b. 1938), "Much madness is divinest sense", published 1977, from Emily Dickinson Songs, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by David Horowicz (b. 1960), "Much madness is divinest sense", 1988 [ soprano, viola, mandolin, guitar ], from Five songs on poems of Emily Dickinson, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Sergius Kagen (1909 - 1964), "Much madness is divinest sense", published 1956 [ voice, clarinet or chamber orchestra ], from The Mob Within the Heart [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Leon Kirchner (b. 1919), "435", 1982 [ soprano and piano ], from The Twilight Stood, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Jules Langert (b. 1932), "Much madness is divinest sense", from Three Emily Dickinson Songs, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Harris Lindenfeld (b. 1945), "Much madness is divinest sense" [ soprano, e flat clarinet, and piano ], from 3 Dickinson Songs [sung text not yet checked]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Walter A. Aue) , copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 37

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This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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