Journal #41- Emily Dickinson "Success is Counted Sweetess"

I read Emily Dickinson's Success is Counted Sweetest. I decided to read this poem, because it was the very first one that was listed on her poem page, and it also grabbed my eye. The word success is what really grabbed me. I am a very big fan of success, and it is something that I strive for every day. I think success is something that everyone strives for. America teaches us that success is a big thing, and if you are successful in life, you will have more things and you will go farther in life. I want to be successful with my grades, at home, cheerleading, FFA, and events that I partake in out of school.

I think that Emily Dickinson also wanted to be a successful person. I think there was a reason that this poem was the very first poem that she put on this list. I think she wanted to start off with what she wanted and success was what she was striving for in all of her poems. In the first stanza of the poem, it is saying to us that everyone needs to experience success, and the ones that have experienced it no how sweet it is. "SUCCESS is counted sweetest By those who ne’er succeed. To comprehend a nectar Requires sorest need" (Dickinson). Everybody needs to experience it so they can really feel what she is talking about here, and I think that at some point everyone has felt successful at some point in their life whether it is big or small, we all have. Also, the last stanza of this poem shows us that when you try to succeed and something and you get defeated, it is not a good feeling. As he, defeated, dying, On whose forbidden ear The distant strains of triumph Break, agonized and clear" (Dickinson). I think it is okay to feel defeat in life, because we need to know that it does happen.



Dickinson, Emily. "1. “Success Is Counted Sweetest.” Part One: Life. Dickinson, Emily. 1924. Complete Poems." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and Hundreds More. Web. 22 Mar. 2011. .