Much Madness is divinest Sense

I love Emily Dickenson's poem Much Madness is divinest Sense.  She stuffs so much underlying meaning and messages into just eight short lines.  The whole poem is one big paradox.  One would expect madness to be frowned upon, but Dickenson states that it is "divinest sense...to a discerning eye" (Dickenson, 830).  In her opinion, "madness" is not equivalent to being psychotic or crazy.  "Madness", as portrayed in this poem, is merely having a sense of individualism, and the ability to question the norm and authority.  Emily looks down upon sanity in this poem.  Sanity is what the majority of human kind possess; it does not inspire individualism, but conformity.  Emily urges people to be rebellious, to embrace themselves as they are, and not what society wants them to be.  Those who have much sense are "handled with a chain" (Dickenson, 830).  They have no freedom because they allow others to set their limitations.