Poems (Dickinson)/Success
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For other versions of this work, see Success is counted sweetest.
I.
LIFE.
POEMS.
I.
SUCCESS.
[Published in "A Masque of Poets" at the request of
"H. H.," the author's fellow-townswoman and friend]
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 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.