SUCCESS IS COUNTED SWEETEST

by: Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

UCCESS 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.

• Emily Dickinson: Bibliography - A bibliography Dickinson's poetic and prose works; includes a list of critical resources.
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