Success is counted sweetest

First drafted in 1859, Success is counted sweetest is Dickinson’s only poem printed in a book during her lifetime. The volume of anonymous verse was part of a series published from 1876–1887.

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!