Scott,

I’m going back to the complete poem, as below:

   Much Madness is divinest Sense —

   To a discerning Eye —

   Much Sense — the starkest Madness —

   ’Tis the Majority

   In this, as All, prevail —

   Assent — and you are sane —

   Demur — you’re straightway dangerous —

   And handled with a Chain —

“Much Madness” and “much sense” are both ambiguous, between “a lot of the madness/sense we observe” and “a high degree of madness/sense.”  I think both readings work, and I rather like the ambiguity.  The dashes add important grammatical information that your quotation left out, namely the parenthetical nature of “to a discerning eye” and the ellipsis of “is” in the third line.  As to the use of the article, I think Dickinson is playing with generic vs. specific meanings.  I suspect meaning rather than meter is the driving force in her choice, although I can’t speak with any authority about how the mind of a poetic genius works.

Herb

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