Uploaded on April 25, 2012
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.
—Emily Dickinson
Collected Poems
04.25.2024: The word “success” should never be used when speaking of war.