While the line uses iambs, there aren't 5 iambic feet and as such isn't pentameter; nonetheless, the rhythm (iambic tetrameter) is common to Dickinson (Because I could not stop for Death...), as it was to Blake (And did those feet in ancient time...), Byron, Browning, and on and on... The lack of *the* suggests that "divinest sense" is term without need of a determiner - it isn't a specific or local sense, but a concept, a quality I suppose Dickinson wishes to categorize for us. We don't say *the* humility when speaking of humility, unless that quality belongs to someone in particular (The humility she exhibits is remarkable). Read the sentence without the inverted syntax and it gets clearer - "To a discerning eye, divinest sense is much madness." I would question more why she uses *Much* in line three, "Much sense the starkest madness", when she means *many*, as in many people... John On Tue, Sep 6, 2011 at 2:53 PM, Carol Morrison <[log in to unmask]>wrote: > In my humble opinion, perhaps Dickinson left the article "the" off of > "divinest" for the rhythm and meter of the poem. The iambic pentameter would > be disturbed by inserting the article. Also, it would make that line 9 > syllables in contrast to the 8 it presently carries which align nicely with > the 7 syllables in /Much sense the starkest madness/ > > Carol > > --- On *Tue, 9/6/11, Scott Woods <[log in to unmask]>* wrote: > > > From: Scott Woods <[log in to unmask]> > Subject: Poetry grammar question: Dickinson > To: [log in to unmask] > Date: Tuesday, September 6, 2011, 2:33 PM > > Dear List, > > Consider these lines from Dickinson: Much madness is divinest sense/ To a > discerning eye;/ Much sense the starkest madness. > Why is there no "the" in front of "divinest sense" and why is there a "the" > in front of "starkest madness"? It sounds wrong to my ear to say "Much > madness is the divinest sense," and it sounds off to say "much sense > starkest madness," but I don't know why this is. What is the rule I'm > missing? > > Thanks, > > Scott Woods > To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface > at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or > leave the list" > Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ > > To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface > at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or > leave the list" > > Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ > -- John Chorazy English III Honors and Academic Pequannock Township High School 973.616.6000 To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/