Success
    by Emily Dickinson


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.
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Also read Emily Dickinson's "Hope" is the thing with feathers.