Success is counted sweetest (112)
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 today
Can tell the definition
So clear of victory
As he defeated – dying –
On whose forbidden ear
The distant strains of triumph
Burst agonized and clear!
"Success is Counted Sweetest" is an early poem written by the American poet Emily Dickinson in 1859. It makes the bold claim that success is best understood by those who fail, and illustrates this claim by contrasting a victorious army with a fallen soldier from the other side. The poem has the rare honor of publication during Dickinson's lifetime (in 1864), though it was published anonymously; of her approximately 1,800 poems, only a few were published during her life.
Summary
People who always fail are the ones who appreciate success the most. To truly value something sweet like success, you have to really, really need it.
Not a single soldier in the army that won the battle today has as clear an understanding of the meaning of victory as does a dying soldier from the opposing army.
To this dying soldier's ears, the distant sounds of celebration ring out painfully clear.
Themes
Success, Lack, and Desire
Emily Dickinson’s “Success is counted sweetest” argues that “success” is valued most by those who have it least. In this sense, success is a kind of a paradox: the more successful you are, the less you appreciate that success, and vice versa. The desire for success is thus strongest in those who need it most—like the dying soldier who can hear the celebrations of his enemies. Desire, then, is defined by a sense of lack—of not having something.
It follows that the less likely success is to come to someone, the more intensely they will desire it. The use of “sweetest” and "nectar" in the first stanza further draw a link between success and desire, as though “success” is something deliciously luxurious to those who don't have it. Indeed, the metaphor in the second half of the first stanza suggests that this paradoxical relationship between success and valuing success is engrained in nature itself. A honey bee, for example, desires “nectar” more and more the hungrier it gets. Likewise, those whose longing for success is met only with failure feel increasingly hungry for success (according to this poem anyway).
The poem develops this idea further with a metaphor about military conflict. In this scenario, a soldier lies “dying” on the ground, hearing the “distant” sounds of “triumph” made by the victorious army (the “purple Host”). It is this dying soldier, not the victors themselves, who best understands what success actually means. He senses the vast distance between his “failure”—the fact that his side has lost the battle and he is now dying—and the goal of the battle in the first place: victory. In other words, the position he finds himself in is as far away as it possibly could be from the position he desired to be in.
The poem's central idea doesn’t seem limited to the specific examples given. Its message could equally apply to the “agony” of unrequited love or a sportsperson failing to win the tournament they’ve always dreamed of winning. People who don't have something want it all the more strongly. Yet the more that thing becomes a part of daily reality—be it success in terms of battle, love, career, or anything else—the less it actually means.
성공은
성공은 성공해보지 못한 이에게만
가장 달콤하게 여겨지는 법
꿀맛도 옳게 알려면
가장 심한 갈증을 겪여야 한다.
오늘 승리의 깃발을 잡고 있는
자주빛 옷 입은 무리 그 누구도
승리의 참 뜻을
똑똑히 말하지는 못하리라
패배하여 죽어 가는 자만큼은.
패자의 희미해 가는 귓가엔
멀리서 울리는 승리의 노랫가락이
괴롭고 뚜렷이 울려온다
에밀리 디킨슨(Emily Dickinson)의 시 "Success is counted sweetest"(성공은 가장 달콤한 것이지요)는 죽어가는 전사의 이미지를 빌려 승리보다는 패배, 만족보다는 좌절의 소중함을 노래합니다. 1859년에 쓰여서, 1864년에 익명으로 출판된 이 시는 그녀가 세상을 떠나고 난 후 112번이라는 번호가 매겨졌습니다.
에밀리 디킨슨(Emily Dickinson)
에밀리 디킨슨은 살아생전 크게 주목을 받지는 못했으나, 디킨슨의 여동생 라비니아(Lavinia)가 디킨슨의 미발표 시들을 공개한 후로 미국의 가장 중요한 시인들 중 한 명으로 간주됩니다. 외적으로 단순해 보이는 에밀리 디킨슨의 시는, 그 단순함 속에서 삶과 죽음의 문제를 집약적으로 다루며 그녀만의 독특한 작품세계를 구축하고 있습니다. 디킨슨은 대부분의 삶을 고독하게 살았다고 전해지며, 결혼하지 않고 극소수의 인간관계만 유지하며 살았던 것으로 전해집니다.
화자는 성공하기 위해 극심한 좌절과 실패를 경험한 사람만이 성공의 달콤함을 알 수 있다고 말합니다. 꽃물(nectar)의 달콤함을 알기 위해서는 역설적으로 가장 아픈 갈증을 요구합니다. 화자는 성공을 위한 경쟁과 고군분투를 군대로 비유하며, 전쟁에서의 승리를 성공으로 대응시킵니다. 하지만 승리의 군단에 속한 이는 누구도 진정한 승리의 의미를 알 수 없다고 말합니다. 2연에서 아무도 알 수 없었던 승리의 의미를 3연의 패잔병은 알고 있습니다. 전쟁에서 패해배 죽음의 고통을 겪고 있는 사람만이 진짜 승리가 무엇인지를, 그것이 의미하는 바를 말할 수 있는 것입니다.
디킨슨은 실패와 좌절을 경험한 사람만이 승리의 진정한 맛을 느낄 수 있다고 말합니다. 목표를 위한 끊임없는 고뇌와 시행착오, 실패를 겪은 후에 얻는 성공이야 말로 진정한 승리라 디킨슨은 말합니다.