73 Success
Emily Dickinson
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!
“Success” by Emily Dickinson was published in Poems: Three Series, Complete. It is in the public domain and was accessed through Project Gutenberg at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/12242/12242-h/12242-h.htm.