Much Madness is divinest Sense

Much Madness is divinest Sense, well honestly that title had me a little lost at first. However, Dickinson gets an important point across. Dickinson says that Madness is good sense and good sense is madness. Pretty much, Dickinson is saying being a hipster and be different. Dickinson writes,  "To a discerning Eye- Much Sense- the starkest Madness." Dickinson says that madness is appealing to the people that desire to learn. and understand.

In essence, Dickinson says that those who society deems as mad are the ones who are truly living. Madness is just a different way of thinking that provides effective modes to one's goal. However, society does not think so. People are dubbed as mad because they are different, and society just cannot deal with different people. In addition, Dickinson wants to make the point that good sense, or going with the flow, is madness because one who has "good sense" is a robot of life. These people with "good sense" do not question why things are done the  way they are and they just do it. Those who think differently are alienated and dubbed "mad."

I felt a funeral, in my Brain

The first line of the poem itself gives a clue to the poem being figurative. The line "I felt a funeral, in my brain" indicates that this funeral is not one of a person on earth. The reader can infer that the funeral has to do with the speaker when the speaker says, "and I dropped down, and down." This funeral of the speaker's brain most likely indicates some sort of developing madness in the speaker. The speaker is losing his or her mind. Throughout the poem, the speaker never sees anything. Most of the details come from other senses, mostly sound. This is another indicator that this is not a literal funeral because the speaker cannot hear anything if he is dead. I think I have developed a crazy theory myself: I believe that the speaker is creating this funeral because he is dead to his friends. The speaker may have lost his mind to the point where he does not appear to be the same person anymore. Because of this, his friends have chosen to ignore this mad person and preserve their memory of the speaker before he went mad.

Miss Brill

In Miss Brill, readers get to know the account of a delusional elderly woman who makes a routine of people watching every Sunday. It becomes clear that Miss Brill has been doing her Sunday routine when she notices that this is no ordinary Sunday since the band is playing more enthusiastically for the bigger than usual crowd. The music from the band seems to always match what is happening. At some points, the music softens for an emotional situation like the ermine toque's rejection, or the music disappears altogether when Miss Brill watches in suspense. Miss Brill is most likely delusional because she talks to her fur accessory  A defining example of Miss Brill's delusion is the last sentence that reads, "...and she swore she heard someone cry." Miss Brill does not even acknowledge her own crying since it had to have been Miss Brill who cried considering she was the only one in the room. Also, Miss Brill fails to recognize how she relates to the ermine toque. The ermine toque and Miss Brill are already related considering they wear the same sort of fur clothing. The ermine toque was rejected by a man similar to how Miss Brill was rejected by society when the young couple feels uncomfortable around her. Miss Brill is an English teacher in what appears to be a town in France. This detail further contributes to Miss Brill's alienation from society.

Bartleby the Scrivener

The story  of Bartleby the Scrivener is of a clash between the stubborn Bartleby and the passive Lawyer. This is not exactly a conflict though because the lawyer feels bad for Bartleby and the only problem is that Bartleby stops working and just lives in the office. At first, I thought Bartleby would be a symbol for the robotic worker who just does whatever his employer says, but then Bartleby said "I would prefer not." for the first of many times. The lawyer puts up with this for a surprisingly long time. The lawyer had some sort of a respect or showed concern for Bartleby. The lawyer makes many attempts to reach out to the alienated Bartleby; the lawyer even tries to help him financially. Eventually, Bartleby goes to prison. The lawyer still shows his care for Bartleby by suggesting that he gets the best food in prison, but Bartleby refuses to eat. When Bartleby finally dies, Melville creates sympathy for Bartleby. The lawyer reveals in the end that he discovered that Bartleby used to destroy letters that were intended for dead people. I can see how this would cause some psychological damage to a person leading to Bartleby's refusal to relate to any living person. I think the moral of the story is not to judge anyone until one knows that person's story.

Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night

The title itself of Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night shows a chief paradox of this poem. Thomas uses "good night" as a symbol for death. What is so good about dying? Other paradoxes appear such as "dark is right," "blinding sight," and"Curse, bless, me now." These paradoxes show the mixed message of the poem that still shows a truth to the poem. Although death is considered to be a bad thing, Thomas makes readers think that it may not be so bad by his calling it that good night. When an old man dies, it puts his soul to rest which is itself a good thing. However, it seems like the author wants one to die with a fight and some honor. The author is speaking to his dying father since Thomas writes, "And you, my father, there on the sad height.". He is saying although  death will bring comfort, his father should not give into the temptation of comfort and fight his own death with dignity. Thomas also compares the different kinds of men and their views on death. Wise men still fight their death because they have no proof of the benefits of death. Good men die with comfort knowing that they have affected others. Wild men are regretful at death of their reckless behavior.Grave men have expected it and are indifferent to death.

That Time of Year

The title, That Time of Year, feeds into the first metaphor of the poem of autumn. It is fairly certain that Shakespeare is talking about autumn when he writes, "When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang." However, the poem is not very light-hearted like some poems about fall. Shakespeare says "Bare ruined choirs" which implies some sort of a negative connotation to fall. The theme of death is not explicitly stated until the middle of the poem when Shakespeare directly says death. Shakespeare also compares death to twilight. The poem talks of the dark night taking over the dying autumn day. Additionally, Shakespeare compares death to a fire. The fire is killed by its own ashes that it produces. Shakespeare describes the ashes as the fire's youth. The fire is like a person's life. It burns bright in its youth with great energy. The fire is not capable of maintaining this energy forever, and is eventually put out by all the ashes it produced. This like how a person's life loses its energy and brightness slowly until they die (yeah that's kind of dark, I know). However, the poem ends  on a sort of good note when Shakespeare says that someone's love will live on much stronger than that person's life.

Crossing the Bar

Throughout Crossing the Bar, Alfred, Lord Tennyson uses many sea metaphors to talk about death. I assume the bar discussed in the poem is a sandbar. This sandbar symbolizes a division between two sides: the area of the bay and the expanse of the ocean. Crossing the sandbar is crossing over to another side like how the saying crossing to the other side is way of saying someone died. The unknown, uncharted expanse of the ocean symbolizes heaven which is unknown to living people. Alfred, Lord Tennyson writes, "And may there be no moaning of the bar." Alfred, Lord Tennyson is saying that he wants a peaceful death with no complaints. Later, Tennyson goes on to say that there should be no sadness when he leaves. This is a little more obvious since Tennyson does not want people to be upset when he dies. Tennyson even continues the sea metaphors when he talks about God by calling him "Pilot." The word Pilot is capitalized to show that he means God because we capitalize God.