Emily Dickinson's Correspondences
Correspondence with Susan Dickinson


H B189
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.


 

H B189


Close-Up Notes
Search Index

Dickinson Electronic Archives Main Menu


Image reproduced by permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University. Not to be reproduced in whole or in part without permission.
Transcription and commentary copyright 1996 by Martha Nell Smith, all rights reserved
Last updated on June 22, 1998
Maintained by Tanya Clement <tclement@umd.edu>