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Niklas Kidd

Mr. Alfonso

ENGL-1020-029

28 February 2024

Bittersweet Nature of Success

Emily Dickinson was an American poet who stretched far beyond her time in terms of her

work. She was seen as a very introverted woman with not a whole lot of hobbies or friends

outside of writing. Several pieces of her work still hold strong in today’s world of modern

English. On April 27th, 1864, Emily Dickinson published one of her most renowned poems

“Success is Counted Sweetest.” This poem is particularly special to me and I chose it because of

its beautiful perspective on both sides, failure and success, and how one who has suffered defeat

can better understand success.

The poem begins with the statement that “Success is counted sweetest…By those who ne’er

succeed…” With the very first two lines in the poem, Dickinson sets up an improbable statement

that success is best understood or valued by those who have not experienced it. The feeling of

success sometimes comes at the sacrifice of other things like happiness, as Dr. Oliver Tearle says

“Think of fame or riches as examples of ‘success’ in contemporary life: many people who get

them realize they don’t provide constant happiness, and aren’t as ‘sweet’ as they appeared when

they were out of reach and we were still striving for them.” This contradiction sets the stage for

exploring the poem’s central theme. The early use of the word “counted” suggests a

measurement of success, while “ne’er succeed” emphasizes the idea of failure or weakness.

“Success is counted sweetest” is not a traditional narrative poem, as it does not tell a story

with a storyline and characters. Instead, it is more of a lyrical poem that hunts for the nature of
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success and the perception of it. The poem expresses more of an emotion rather than a mood.

The emotion it primarily conveys is the bittersweet feeling of longing or a craving for success.

Dickinson suggests that those who have not experienced success at all have a deeper appreciation

than those who have achieved it. The poem emphasizes the nature of success and the burn for

desire, as it’s something that is very difficult to attain.

Dickinson utilizes her vivid imagery to illustrate the idea that those who have not experienced

success understand and cherish its sweetness more intimately. She compares the sensation of

understanding success to the experience of a sore soldier while being wounded and defeated,

desperately craving water but not getting any. This analogy highlights the intensity of the

anticipation for success felt by those who have never achieved it, emphasizing the idea that the

value of success is best understood from a position of struggle or collapse.

The form of “Success is counted sweetest" is directly related to its content, as this is the case

for the majority of her poetry. Emily Dickinson normally liked to use a more unconventional

style to her writing that was not always what we would consider to be “grammatically correct” in

today’s world, but it made her poems unique and tailored to her. “Emily Dickinson’s poetry was

groundbreaking in its innovative use of language and form. Her distinctive style, characterized

by her use of dashes, unconventional capitalization, and compact lines, set her apart from her

contemporaries and continues to captivate readers today.” says Esther Lombardi, an author in

women’s poetry who gives a great analysis for how Dickinson’s style is really just a thing of its

own. Even though Emily Dickinson’s style might not be accepted by English professors today,

the actual content of her work is what made her such an admirable figure in poetry.

In the third stanza, Emily Dickinson switches up the perspective on the reader and gives them

a view of someone who had already been successful at some point in their lives. Dickinson refers
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to them as people who have nothing to gain and nothing to give while implying that their

experiences of success won’t be understood by those who have never achieved it. Similar to lots

of Dickinson’s other poems, her language is very formal and elevated, but at the same time her

language isn't particularly fancy or elegant, but she still delivers very rich vocabulary and

complex writing patterns that are unique to her style. Her poem uses a more poetic kind of style

rather than a colloquial style that is found more commonly in poems that use conversations or as

a way to express personality, something Emily Dickinson does not do.

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Work Cited

Lombardi, Esther. “Emily Dickinson: Examining the Influences and Impact of Her

Revolutionary Poetry.” A Book Geek, 20 July 2023,

https://www.abookgeek.com/emily-dickinson-examining-the-influences-and-impact-of-h

er-revolutionary-poetry/. Accessed 30 March 2024.

Tearle, Oliver. “A Short Analysis of Emily Dickinson's 'Success Is Counted Sweetest.'”

Interesting Literature,

https://interestingliterature.com/2020/05/success-is-counted-sweetest-analysis-summary-

dickinson/#. Accessed 30 March 2024.