Success is Counted Sweetest

Success is counted sweetest 

BY EMILY DICKINSON

Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.


Not one of all the purple Host
Who took the Flag today
Can tell the definition
So clear of victory


As he defeated – dying –
On whose forbidden ear
The distant strains of triumph
Burst agonized and clear!


Introduction to the Poetess:
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts. She was born on December 10, 1830. The name of her father was Edward and the name of her mother was Emily (Norcross) Dickinson. At the time of her birth, Emily‟s father was an ambitious young lawyer. He later joined the ailing law practice of his father, Samuel Fowler Dickinson.
She attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, but only for 
one year. Throughout her life, she seldom left her home and visitors were few. 
Dickinson‟s poetry was heavily influenced by the Metaphysical poets of seventeenth-century England, as well as her reading of the Book of Revelation and her upbringing in a Puritan New England town, which encouraged a Calvinist, orthodox, and conservative approach to Christianity .

She died in Amherst in 1886.Upon her death, Dickinson‟s family discovered forty hand 
bound volumes of nearly 1,800 poems, or “fascicles” as they are sometimes called. The Manuscript Books of Emily Dickinson (Belknap Press, 1981) is an important volume of her poetry.

Explanation :
The poetess says that the value of success is understood by a person who never succeeds. A failed person understands more what success means than a successful person. Success matters to him most. Success is thus counted sweetest to such person only. 

The poetess uses a metaphor to convey her view by saying that a person whose throat is sore can realise the sweetness of nectar more than a person without the sore throat : 
“To comprehend nectar
Requires sorest need.” 
It means that only a starving person can fully understand the value of food.

The poetess says that battles are fought. Victory matters in all the battles. But the real value of victory is never realized by the winning side. But it is felt more powerfully by the losing side. Only the soldiers who were defeated understand the real meaning of winning in war. Those soldiers are left “defeated” and “dying” on the battlefield as they listen to the other side‟s celebrations of their victory.Fame, or success, and their lack or failure are the central themes in Dickinson‟s poetry.

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