Success comes in all sizes In Emily Dickinson’s poem “ Success is Counted Sweetest” an overlying theme is present this is that success is only realized in death. At the start of the poem there is brief description of success that says that success is the sweetest to those who never have it. Dickinson also in the first stanza of the poem explains that to understand success an individual must first have a need to have this success. In the whole first stanza Dickinson is setting up the basis for her story. In the first two lines of the second stanza Dickinson says “Not one of all the purple Host Who took the Flag today” this is saying that a group of people won a battle or had a triumph of some sort. Dickinson continues in this stanza saying, “Can tell the definition So clear of Victory” These last two lines say that nobody in this group can tell what the greatness of their victory is and that they don’t think of it being successful at all. The first line of the third stanza reads “As he defeated-dying-” this is simple one of this group is now dying. The rest of the poem reads, “On whose forbidden ear the distant strains of triumph burst agonized and clear!” What happens here is that this one man realizes the success of his group at the time of his death and that he lived his whole life not knowing it and not being able to enjoy it, The main idea of this poem was that people strive for success but when they get it they want more and only at the end do they realize what they had but will never enjoy. (Word Count 293)...
