Succes 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 to-day
Can tell the definition,
So clear, of victory,
As he, defeated, dying,
On whose forbidden ear
The distant strains of triumph
Break, agonized and clear.
Credits
This poem was written by Emily Dickinson, one of America's most celebrated 19th-century poets, known for her unconventional punctuation, slant rhyme, and piercing philosophical insight. "Success" is believed to be one of the few poems Dickinson saw published during her lifetime, appearing anonymously in 1878 — a fitting irony given its meditation on recognition and defeat.
