Paradox. (Geddit? ... Pair o' Docs? ...I'm really trying.)

"WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH."

Leaving aside for the moment the frustrating lack of punctuation in that thought, and also pleading forgiveness for the obnoxious and apparently irrevocable underline effect, I will now point out the paradoxical nature of Big Brother's three favorite slogans. It's pretty obvious.

War is the opposite of peace. They are antonymns. However, the Party would like everyone to believe that they live in a peaceful society, even though they don't, so they brainwash everyone to believe this stuff.

Likewise, freedom is the opposite of slavery. That sentence (fragment? run-on?) makes no sense, but people believe it because they no longer have evidence to the contrary.

The final "Ignorance is strength" idea is slightly less ridiculous, but only because ignorance is not the opposite of strength. Ignorance is a subset of weakness, though, and weakness is the opposite of strength. Everybody's drinking gin and beer all the time instead of water, though, and they're all (except Winston and a few others maaaybe) too gullible to understand that of course war isn't peace, and freedom isn't slavery, and ignorance isn't strength.

Crayola washable kids' paint.

The tone of "Much Madness is Divinest Sense" is satirical, methinks. (*points at question eight*) Dickinson isn't really the dry humor sort, though, so it's not a particularly amusing satire, and I think there's some expectation of that in most satire, so I'm conflicted. Her speaker definitely seems to be calling for change, though. She wants to ensure that people don't just blindly accept things. Sense is madness, and the majority is sensible, but she wants to show that the crazy minorityis in the right.

She does recognize the risks involved, though. "Demur--you're straightway dangerous,/ And handled with a chain." Straying from the norm hasn't worked to the advantage of most of our famous examples. They're usually the ones who bring about the big changes that keep our world from plummeting into irrevocable doom, though, so we need those guys.

Some people call that a prayer.

^^Heart-battering? Anyone?

It's a poem of direct address to God!

The primary focus seems to be on paradoxical statements. For instance, the speaker says he'll never be free until God imprisons him. Also, he says he won't be chaste until he's ravished.

Aaaaand there was quite a bit of symbolism. God the Father is the one who knocks and breaks; think flood-the-land, build-an-arc God. The Holy Spirit is the one that breathes and blows because the Holy Spirit is often described like a wind.... Also, God the Son is the shining and burning one because it's a PUN! =D He's the Light of the World and the Son/Sun of God. (That's actually where the date for Christmas originated, indirectly, I believe. The pagans had a feast day for the sun god, and Christians wanted to party too, so they made Christmas to celebrate at the same time for their Son of God. I may have that slightly wrong, as I am remembering it from middle school religion class.)

*FUN Fact* The name N'SYNC comes from one of the members' mother saying the group sounded "in sync." It also includes the last letter of each of the members' first names: JustiN, ChriS, JoeY, Lan(steN), and JC. Yeah, they gave Lance a nickname so it would fit.