sweetest
by Emily Dickinson
(Text, Summary, Analysis & Points to Remember)
‘Success
is counted sweetest’ is a lyric poem written by Emily Dickinson in 1859 and published
anonymously in 1864. The poem uses images of a victorious army and a dying
warrior to suggest, that the person, who has faced defeat, can understand
victory.
Text
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.
The
poem was republished in an anthology, A Mask of Poets (1878), as part of a
series of books published without the authors' names. The book was edited by
George Parsons Lathrop and was published by the Roberts Brothers. The poem was
published with the title, "success" in the book. After the book's
publication, Jackson published a review noting that "Success" was
"undoubtedly one of the strongest and finest wrought things in the
book".
Summary
The
poem ‘Success is counted sweetest’ begins with speaking about the importance of
success. It says that success is valued more by those who have never achieved
it in their lives. Those who fail in their lives, know the real importance of
success and the true happiness of achieving it. Then it says that to understand
the sweetness of nectar, there must be a deficiency and one must really need it
because in order to know the true value of something, the desire for it must be
strong. This means that something is more desirable for those who do not have
it. They can understand the true value of achieving something when they have
been longing for it.
The
second stanza speaks of the victorious army on the battlefield. It states that
those, who have won the battle and received the flag of victory, although they
celebrate and enjoy their victory, cannot define the victory so well because
the value of success cannot be defined by those who have never experienced
failure. They are victorious but do not understand its importance. They are
winners but cannot really appreciate their victory because it seems normal to
them and they can no longer understand the sweetness of it. They have got it
and after that, it has lost its meaning for them.
The
third stanza says, that the cheering and crying of the victorious soldiers,
celebrating their victory are reaching to the ears of the defeated and dying
soldier. He overhears the victorious soldiers celebrating their victory,
although he has lost, he knows the true value of victory as he is going through
pain and suffering and knows how important and sweet the victory is. He
understands the value of victory more than the celebrating winners.
A failed
person knows the true worth of victory more than a victorious one because he
knows the pain of failure. A loser appreciates triumph more than the one who
has achieved it. One must go through the pain of failure in order to fully
understand the value of victory. The soldier has failed and experienced loss,
yet he knows and appreciates victory and its significance more than the
victorious soldiers because he had desired it.
Analysis
"Success"
was one of Dickinson's earliest manuscript poems and one of only seven poems
published during her lifetime. The poem emphasizes the power of desire and
balances desire with victory. From a Christian point of view, the sounds,
bursting on the dying warrior's ear, may be heavenly music, as he passes to his
eternal rest. The popularity of
"success" can be attributed to the fact that the poem's "message
can be applied to any situation where there are winners and losers."
The
poem is written about the significance of success. It explains its theme by
providing an image of a battlefield. It has three quatrains. The first stanza
can stand alone because it carries a compact idea. It is independent of the
other two stanzas while the third and fourth stanzas depend on one another for
complete understanding. The stanzas are written in “iambic trimeter” except for
the first two lines of the second stanza which are written in “iambic
tetrameter”.
The
poem “Success is counted sweetest” defines success and illustrates its
importance. The poem is a compact one and carries great meaning. It conveys a
moral lesson and talks about human desire and his psychological truth. In the
beginning, a general idea of success and its importance is given. Then the poem
is confined to a battlefield, to give an example of the importance of success
but this concept of winning and losing is not confined to a battlefield field
only, it can be applied to any situation of success and failure.
It
says that success is something that is considered valuable by those who have
never achieved it. Those who have always failed in achieving success know its
true worth because the value of something is known to those who are unable to
have it. People who are a failure in their lives know how significant success
is and for them, it is the sweetest.
It
is said that those who are in need of something and do not have it, truly know
its value rather than those who have it. Here success is compared to nectar. It
says that to understand the sweetness of nectar, one should be in need of it.
The sweetness and joy of achieving something depend on how deep is the passion
and want. Those who do not have something and they want it, they truly know the
joy of having it. It is human nature that when we do not have something and we
want it. It means a lot to us. We value it more as compared to those who
already have it.
Victorious
do not understand the true importance of success because they have not tasted
the pain of failure. Their victory is shallow because they have not experienced
the process of losing something. The victory has cost them nothing. They have
achieved it by getting no pain but to understand the pain and agony, in order
to achieve success, one needs to experience failure. While the dying soldier on
the defeated side knows the true worth of victory when he hears the victorious
soldiers celebrating their victory. He does know the significance of victory
because he is the one who experiences failure. He knows what it cost to achieve
success. He understands the importance of winning and knows the pain of losing
a battle.
The
poem “Success is counted sweetest” is set in a battlefield where the army on
one side has won the battle while the other side has lost it. The tone of the
poem is impersonal and unemotional. The narrator narrates what is going on in
the battlefield without showing any sympathy with the defeated army. The point
of view in the poem is a third-person narrative. The narrator narrates what he
observes, without participating in it. He observes a battlefield in which one
army has won the battle and its soldiers are celebrating while the other army
has lost the battle.
“Nectar”
in the third line of the poem symbolizes success. It says that to understand
the sweetness of a nectar, one should lack it and when someone needs something,
one wants it. The sweetness of getting it depends on the degree of want. In the
fifth line of the poem the “Purple Host” symbolizes the victorious army.
The
poem's three quatrains are written in iambic trimeter with only line 5 in
iambic tetrameter. Lines 1 and 3 (and others) end with extra syllables. The
rhyme scheme is abcb. The poem's "success" theme is treated paradoxically:
Only those who know defeat can truly appreciate success. Alliteration enhances
the poem's lyricism. The first stanza is a complete observation and can stand
alone. Stanzas two and three introduce military images (a captured flag, a
victorious army, a dying warrior) and are dependent upon one another for
complete understanding.
The
poem is a compact and witty one which has conveyed a great message in little
words. The poet has used imagery in the poem and an image of the battlefield is
created in the mind of the reader. The reader can imagine a victorious army in
the battlefield, who has won the battle, having the flag of victory and a dying
soldier on the defeated side. Metaphor used in the poem is “nectar”. It is used
to symbolize success. The sweetness of a nectar is compared to the sweetness of
achieving success. The first two lines of the first stanza is the example of a
paradox.
“Success
is counted sweetest
By
those who ne’er succeed”
Points to
Remember:
-
"Success is counted sweetest" is
written in 1859 and published anonymously in 1864.
-
The poem was republished in the anthology, A
Masque of Poets (1878)
-
The poem “Success is counted sweetest” speaks
about the importance of success.
-
Those who are a failure in their lives know the
real significance of success and the true happiness of achieving it.
-
To know the actual value of something, the
want for it should be strong.
-
Victorious do not understand the significance
of victory.
-
Only seven poems were published during
Dickinson's lifetime and ‘Success is counted sweetest’ is one of them.
-
The poem emphasizes the power of desire and
equates desire with victory.
-
The background of the poem “Success is
counted sweetest” is a battlefield.
-
“Nectar”, in the poem, symbolizes success and
“Purple Host” symbolizes the victorious army.
-
The rhyme scheme in each stanza is abcb.
-
The poem's "success" theme is
treated paradoxically
){kind=link}
0 Comments