Page:The complete poems of Emily Dickinson, (IA completepoemsofe00dick 1).pdf/14

INTRODUCTION Sufficient troth that we shall rise—

Deposed, at length, the grave—

To that new marriage, justified

Through Calvaries of Love!"

Her own philosophy had early taught her that All was in All: there were no degrees in anything. Accordingly nothing was mean or trivial, and her "fainting robin" became a synonym of the universe. She saw in absolute terms which gave her poetry an accuracy like that obtained under the microscope of modern science. But her soul dominated, and when her footsteps wavered her terms were still dictated by her unquenchable spirit.

Hers too were spirit terms with life and friends, in which respect she was of a divergence from the usual not easily to be condoned.

It was precisely the clamor of the commonplace exasperated by the austerities of a reserved individuality, that provoked her immortal exclamation:

"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."

Her interpretation demands height and depth of application in her readers, for although her range is that of any soul not earth-bound by the senses, she does not always make it immediately plain when she speaks out of her own vision in her own tongue. In spite of which, beyond those who profess her almost as a cult, she [viii]