188
[Published in “A Masque of Poets” at the request of “H.H.,” the author’s fellow-townswoman and friend.]
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!
Source:
Poems Series 1, Emily Dickinson, Public Domain