Much Madness

madness (noun): a state of frenzied or chaotic activity

This weekend will probably be madness. My midterm composition project for music theory and my midterm paper for writing are both due on Wednesday.

Sometimes I get phrases stuck in my head - lines from poems, quotes from literature, idioms, or sometimes just words. Some of the time I don't know where the phrase is from or what the word stuck in my head means. I lead a weird life. Today the line stuck in my head is, "Much madness is divinest sense." Google saved the day. It comes from an Emily Dickinson poem that I have no recollection of reading, but apparently I have.

Part One: Life
XI
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.

I'm not sure what relevance this bears on my situation, but at least my curiosity is satisfied. I don't always understand poetry very well.

One way to handle madness is to look for humor in situations. This week I laughed while reading music theory. Let me share a choice quotation:

♫ "Despite the melodic origin, we may conveniently view the Italian augmented sixth as a first-inversion subdominant in minor, with the sixth above the bass raised a half step. . . . Regardless of your favorite method of augmented-sixth-chord construction, the German type requires only that one pitch be added to the basic 'Italian' sonority."

Um, yeah.