“Success is counted sweetest” Summary

“Success is counted sweetest” Themes

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  Success, Lack, and Desire

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Success is counted sweetest”

• Lines 1-2

  Success is counted sweetest
  By those who ne'er succeed.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 3-4

  To comprehend a nectar
  Requires sorest need.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  Not one of all the purple Host
  Who took the Flag today
  Can tell the definition
  So clear of victory

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-10

  As he defeated – dying –
  On whose forbidden ear

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 11-12

  The distant strains of triumph
  Burst agonized and clear!

  

  

  

  

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“Success is counted sweetest” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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• Metonymy

  

  

  

  

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• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Paradox

  

  

  

  

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• Sibilance

  

  

  

  

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“Success is counted sweetest” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Counted
• Ne'er
• Nectar
• Sorest
• Purple Host
• Strains
• Agonized

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Success is counted sweetest”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Success is counted sweetest” Speaker

“Success is counted sweetest” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Success is counted sweetest”

More “Success is counted sweetest” Resources

• External Resources

  • On Playing Emily — A clip in which actor Cynthia Nixon discusses playing Emily Dickinson in the film A Quiet Passion.  

  • Student Resources — Resources for students about Dickinson provided by the Emily Dickinson museum (which is situated in her old house). 

  • Understanding Dickinson's Use of Meter — A valuable discussion of Dickinson's use of meter in her poetry. 

  • Dickinson: the Podcast — Experts talk about Emily Dickinson's life and work on the BBC's In Our Time podcast/radio show. 

  • The Original Poem — Take a look at the poem in Dickinson's handwriting.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Emily Dickinson

  • A Bird, came down the Walk

  • After great pain, a formal feeling comes –

  • A Light exists in Spring

  • A Murmur in the Trees—to note—

  • A narrow Fellow in the Grass

  • An awful Tempest mashed the air—

  • As imperceptibly as grief

  • A still—Volcano—Life—

  • A Word dropped careless on a Page

  • Because I could not stop for Death —

  • Before I got my eye put out

  • Fame is a fickle food

  • Hope is the thing with feathers

  • I cannot live with You –

  • I cautious, scanned my little life

  • I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—

  • I did not reach Thee

  • I died for Beauty—but was scarce

  • I dreaded that first Robin, so

  • I dwell in Possibility –

  • I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

  • If I can stop one heart from breaking

  • I had been hungry, all the Years

  • I have a Bird in spring

  • I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -

  • I like a look of Agony

  • I like to see it lap the Miles

  • I measure every Grief I meet

  • I’m Nobody! Who are you?

  • I started Early — Took my Dog —

  • I taste a liquor never brewed

  • It was not Death, for I stood up

  • I—Years—had been—from Home—

  • Like Rain it sounded till it curved

  • Much Madness is divinest Sense -

  • My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun

  • Nature is what we see

  • One need not be a Chamber — to be Haunted

  • Publication — is the Auction

  • Safe in their Alabaster Chambers

  • Shipwreck

  • Tell all the truth but tell it slant —

  • The Brain—is wider than the Sky—

  • The Bustle in a House

  • The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants

  • There came a Wind like a Bugle

  • There is no Frigate like a Book

  • There's a certain Slant of light

  • There's been a Death, in the Opposite House

  • The saddest noise, the sweetest noise

  • The Sky is low — the Clouds are mean

  • The Soul has bandaged moments

  • The Soul selects her own Society

  • The Wind – tapped like a tired Man –

  • They shut me up in Prose –

  • This is my letter to the world

  • This World is not Conclusion

  • 'Twas the old—road—through pain—

  • We grow accustomed to the Dark

  • What mystery pervades a well!

  • Whose cheek is this?

  • Wild nights - Wild nights!