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.
-- Emily Dickinson
One of the truest things I've ever read..When I first read the poem, it struck me as something which people crib about most of the times-failure. But as I read it over and over, it brought home what Dickinson was trying so hard, yet so simply to say. I remember having goosebumps the first time I understood the depth and agony of the lines..N it will continue to haunt me..It's one of my favourite poems.
