16 pages • 32 minutes read
Emily DickinsonSuccess Is Counted Sweetest
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1864A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Failure as a Necessity of Life
In the final two lines of the first stanza, the speaker makes a comment on the effect of need or desire on an experience: in order to “comprehend” (Line 3) or value almost anything, there must be “sorest need” (Line 4). “Sorest need” implies some sort of desperation that leads to appreciation. Similarly, then, failure is necessary to the ability to value success. In order to be able to tell the good times from the bad, and the positives from the negatives, an individual has to actually experience low periods in life, periods characterized by the challenges of failure and despair. It is the experience of these low periods that makes the individual truly appreciate the good times, the victories, and a sense of ease.
In the metaphor of the battle, the “purple Host” (Line 5) who achieve the “Flag” (Line 6) and gain “victory” (Line 8) are the ones who are unable to “tell the definition” (Line 7) of victory themselves. They cannot even identify the success that lies before them. On the other hand, the individual who is “defeated” and “dying” (Line 9) is the one who hears the “agonized and clear” (Line 12) music of victory, coveting what the victory that belongs to someone else. This lack of success and victory, and this void, makes the defeated persona realize what they are lacking, allowing them to recognize and identify what success actually is.
Success and Happiness
Society often equates success and victory with a sense of ease and happiness. However, in Dickinson’s poem, readers learn that this assumption isn’t always the case. This theme is most clearly observable in the second stanza where the militaristic extended metaphor is introduced. When the “purple Host” (Line 5) who is introduced in the second stanza proves victorious over their adversary, there is no sense of joy or happiness which arises because of this defeat. Yet, in the final stanza, the fallen adversary hears “strains of triumph” (Line 11) in the distance. These points are contradictory, as the victorious “purple Host” (Line 5) is not even able to “tell the definition / So clear of victory” (Lines 7 - 8). How can the victor be victorious if they cannot even define their victory? How can the successful enjoy their success if they connote even describe it? The victory in the poem inspires more questions than answers, inviting the reader to figure out for their self what victory, success, failure, and defeat mean to them.
Inequality as a Fact of Life
Dickinson’s poem suggests that there is a natural order around matters of success and loss. The poem demonstrates that not everyone will be successful in life, and there will be those who rise and those who fall. In order for victories to exist, there have to be defeated parties as well. This is just the way of the world, as matters of fairness and injustice affect everyone.
On one level, Dickinson seems to equate victory and success with social class. In the second stanza, Dickinson introduces the “purple Host” (Line 5). As previously stated, the color purple often represented royalty or nobility. These nobles and royals are those described as achieving victory over the downtrodden, “defeated” (Line 9) and “dying” (Line 9) individuals. The color purple enables the speaker of the poem to draw a clear distinction of social class. The members of the higher class are only successful at the cost to those beneath them on the social ladder. To make matters worse, the victorious nobility do not even appear to understand or appreciate their success. If there is one positive to be taken from the success of these higher status individuals, it is that their victory creates more of a need and desire for victory in those below them, motivating them to keep striving forward.
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By Emily Dickinson
