Success is counted sweetest by Emily Dickinson

I remember studying this in English class my junior year in HS. I didn’t care for my teacher, but I did like the poem.

Success is counted sweetest
By Emily Dickinson

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.

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