Success Is Counted Sweetest

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 today
Can tell the definition
So clear of Victory
As he defeated-dying
On whose forbidden ear
The distant strains of triumph
Burst agonized and clear!

by Emily Dickinson.

Emily Dickinson's "Success is Counted Sweetest" has been written in iambic trimester. The poem highlights observational truths that are most people believe.

In the first stanza, Emily Dickinson writes to define the true essence of success. The general impression is that success can be 'counted' by only those who have experienced it numerous times. But, it is more precisely evaluated or counted by those who have never succeeded as they can catch its true value.  

For the true experience of life, failures are inevitable. For, what we learn from our failures, success can never teach us. The alliteration with the repetition of the 's' sound lays emphasis on 'success'. Success also tastes sweeter to the person who has persevered very hard for it, than to a person who has found success effortlessly. The former is also more thankful to God, and cherishes his accomplishment. The word 'nectar' here implies water. However, it is perception that renders it 'nectar'. To the thirsty ones with parched throats, a drop of water tastes as sweet as nectar. Here 'sorest' is utilized with reference to its old meaning ,that is 'greatest'.Only the one in the direst need, can treasure any sort of sanction.

Passing Time

Your skin like dawn
Mine like musk
One paints the beginning
of a certain end.
The other, the end of a
sure beginning.

Maya Angelou

 



Maya Angelou’s short poem “Passing Time” is about an interracial couple. It is from the prospective of the black person. In the opening line “Your skin like dawn mine like musk” giving the irony of the poem. Angelou describes the skin by metaphorically calling dawn and musk. These things are usually perceived as beautiful, but are put parallel to a theme that she writes as something that shall bring an end. "The beginning of a certain end" suggests an inevitable conclusion to the relationship depicted in this poem, though there is uncertainty as to the outcome of the ending. While this fixed, inevitable end is clear to the author, the reader is left to fill in the blanks for himself. "The end of a sure beginning" is also provocative. There is a suggestion of confusion as to the nature of the relationship, as the author knew how to begin the relationship but does not know how to continue into this new territory. Both the author and the figure she addresses are left in a state of transition where much is certain, but even more is unknown.