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Success is counted sweetest
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Emily Dickinson
1,579 books6,944 followersEmily Dickinson was an American poet who, despite the fact that less than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime, is widely considered one of the most original and influential poets of the 19th century.
Dickinson was born to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. After she studied at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she spent a short time at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's house in Amherst. Thought of as an eccentric by the locals, she became known for her penchant for white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even leave her room. Most of her friendships were therefore carried out by correspondence.
Although Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime.The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Dickinson's poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation.Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends.
Although most of her acquaintances were probably aware of Dickinson's writing, it was not until after her death in 1886—when Lavinia, Emily's younger sister, discovered her cache of poems—that the breadth of Dickinson's work became apparent. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1890 by personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, both of whom heavily edited the content.
A complete and mostly unaltered collection of her poetry became available for the first time in 1955 when The Poems of Emily Dickinson was published by scholar Thomas H. Johnson. Despite unfavorable reviews and skepticism of her literary prowess during the late 19th and early 20th century, critics now consider Dickinson to be a major American poet.
For more information, please see http://www.answers.com/topic/emily-di...
Dickinson was born to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. After she studied at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she spent a short time at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's house in Amherst. Thought of as an eccentric by the locals, she became known for her penchant for white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even leave her room. Most of her friendships were therefore carried out by correspondence.
Although Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime.The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Dickinson's poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation.Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends.
Although most of her acquaintances were probably aware of Dickinson's writing, it was not until after her death in 1886—when Lavinia, Emily's younger sister, discovered her cache of poems—that the breadth of Dickinson's work became apparent. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1890 by personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, both of whom heavily edited the content.
A complete and mostly unaltered collection of her poetry became available for the first time in 1955 when The Poems of Emily Dickinson was published by scholar Thomas H. Johnson. Despite unfavorable reviews and skepticism of her literary prowess during the late 19th and early 20th century, critics now consider Dickinson to be a major American poet.
For more information, please see http://www.answers.com/topic/emily-di...
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 19, 2024
Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need……
As in numerous other poems, Dickinson here considers misery and ownership, and the modes of enjoyment possible to each. The poem is surely an expression of the idea of compensation, the idea that every evil confers some balancing good, that through acrimony we are able to appreciate the sweet, that “water is taught by thirst”.
The overpowered and failing soldier of this poem is compensated by a greater awareness of the meaning of victory than the victors themselves can have: he can grasp the delight of triumph through its polar contrast to his own hopelessness.
The poem surely does say that. But there is something more in the poem. On a first reading, we are much awestruck by the dejection of the dying soldier’s lot, and an improved empathy of the nature of victory may seem small compensation for defeat and death; but the more we contemplate upon this poem the more we feel that the poetess is arguing the dominance of defeat over victory, of hindrance over gratification, and of tormented understanding over mere possession.
The victors have only the victory, a victory ‘vehicle they cannot undoubtedly define or completely enjoy. They have paid for their victory by a sacrifice of awareness; a material gain has cost them a spiritual loss.
For the dying soldier, the case is upturned: defeat and death are attended by an increase of consciousness, and material loss thus leads to spiritual gain.
Dickinson would think it to be a better bargain.
The poet never lets us forget for very long that in some respects life did not give her what she was worthy of; and indeed it is possible to say that the greater part of her poetry is an exertion to cope with her sense of adversity.
For her there were three major hardships: she was deprived of a traditional and steady religious faith; she was deprived of love; and she was deprived of literary recognition. She had an anguished sense of having separated herself from spiritual community, from purpose, and from magnitude of life.
By those who ne'er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need……
As in numerous other poems, Dickinson here considers misery and ownership, and the modes of enjoyment possible to each. The poem is surely an expression of the idea of compensation, the idea that every evil confers some balancing good, that through acrimony we are able to appreciate the sweet, that “water is taught by thirst”.
The overpowered and failing soldier of this poem is compensated by a greater awareness of the meaning of victory than the victors themselves can have: he can grasp the delight of triumph through its polar contrast to his own hopelessness.
The poem surely does say that. But there is something more in the poem. On a first reading, we are much awestruck by the dejection of the dying soldier’s lot, and an improved empathy of the nature of victory may seem small compensation for defeat and death; but the more we contemplate upon this poem the more we feel that the poetess is arguing the dominance of defeat over victory, of hindrance over gratification, and of tormented understanding over mere possession.
The victors have only the victory, a victory ‘vehicle they cannot undoubtedly define or completely enjoy. They have paid for their victory by a sacrifice of awareness; a material gain has cost them a spiritual loss.
For the dying soldier, the case is upturned: defeat and death are attended by an increase of consciousness, and material loss thus leads to spiritual gain.
Dickinson would think it to be a better bargain.
The poet never lets us forget for very long that in some respects life did not give her what she was worthy of; and indeed it is possible to say that the greater part of her poetry is an exertion to cope with her sense of adversity.
For her there were three major hardships: she was deprived of a traditional and steady religious faith; she was deprived of love; and she was deprived of literary recognition. She had an anguished sense of having separated herself from spiritual community, from purpose, and from magnitude of life.
February 23, 2026
Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed.
March 30, 2023
“Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need”
By those who ne'er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need”
November 14, 2023
a short beautiful poem reflecting the wicked ways of life where subaltern are sacrificed for the benefits & ambitions of the Elites.
March 6, 2024
Umetnost reči
November 15, 2025
Success is sweetest for those who never succeed. The more you fail, the sweeter your success will be. This I know to be true.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews