what is the meaning of the following poem by emily dickinson?

Question

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
Break agonized and clear!
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what does it mean...??? plz answer ASAP
thanx in advance!

Answer 1

Dickinson is saying that it's not the winners in the world who truly understand what winning means. Rather, it's the losers, the people who don't win but only yearn for victory and witness it from afar.

If she merely said it the way I've just said it, her observation about winning and losing would be a pretty flat, boring statement. Read through the poem and notice all the vivid images she uses to enliven what she's saying.

Answer 2

"A common idea in Dickinson's poems is that not having increases our appreciation or enjoyment of what we lack; the person who lacks or does not have understands whatever is lacking better than the person who possesses it. In this poem, the loser knows the meaning '"definition" of victory better than the winners. The implication is that he has "won" this knowledge by paying so high a price, with the anguish of defeat and with his death."

Answer 3

Jealousy.