Success is Counted Sweetest (Emily Dickinson): Short questions and answers

Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need. (First Stanza)
- Explain the above lines.

Ans- These lines are taken from the second stanza of Emily Dickinson's poem 'Success Is counted sweetest'.
Here, 'Purple' is considered to be a royal color and the phrase “purple host” symbolically represents the intensification of success through pomp and glory as often witness as a post battle winning picturesque.
'The Flag' today refers to the victorious troop marching with the high raised flags.
The poet says that no one from the victorious side can actually define how it feels like to be successful in a battle. Victory or success often accompanies sheer luck and the person thus successful misses the real less of success. Success itself is expressed through the loss. Only the defeated can understand the true value of success.


No. 2

Not one of all the Purple Host
Who took the Flag today
Can tell the definition
So clear of Victory (Second Stanza)
- Explain the above lines.

Ans- These lines are taken from the second stanza of Emily Dickinson's poem 'Success Is counted sweetest'.
Here, 'Purple' is considered to be a royal color and the phrase “purple host” symbolically represents the intensification of success through pomp and glory as often witness as a post battle winning picturesque.
'The Flag' today refers to the victorious troop marching with the high raised flags.
The poet says that no one from the victorious side can actually define how it feels like to be successful in a battle. Victory or success often accompanies sheer luck and the person thus successful misses the real less of success. Success itself is expressed through the loss. Only the defeated can understand the true value of success.

No. 3

As he defeated - dying -
On whose forbidden ear
The distant strains of triumph
Burst agonized and clear! (Concluding Stanza)
- Explain the above lines.

Ans- These lines are taken from the concluding part of Emily Dickenson's poem 'Success is counted sweetest'.
'Strains of triumph' refers to the worries and anxieties they undergo on hearing shouts of their opponent’s success.
'Burst agonized' refers to extreme pain and despair.

Defeated in the battle, the soldiers are on the verge of death. During the battle he might have given his hundred per cent and subsequently changed his warfare strategy a number of times only to attain success. However his hope could not be realized. His ear could vaguely interpret the sound of triumph of his opponent. This very inner feeling of pain and emptiness at the eve of death further clarifies his perception of success. Finally he dies in pain.