Emily Dickinson 1

Sing Ruby Siu
English 48B
March 19, 2009
Journal #21 Emily Dickinson

QUOTE:

“Success is counted sweetest/ By those who ne’er succeed. /To comprehend a nectar/ Requires sorest need.” (79).

SUMMARY:

This particular line is extracted from one of the poems by Emily Dickinson. In this poem titled “112” or “67,” she first told us that only those who had never tasted the fruit of success would find it desirable and attractive. Dickinson said that the requirement for feeling the overwhelming happiness of success is an intense need for one. If one often succeeds, or takes success easy, one will lack the passion to adore the sweetness of success. For those who had already succeeded, they could not even distinguish the definition of success, for the reason that they had experienced too many times. Finally, Dickinson concluded with a specific example that the defeated man, probably an army, could hear the triumph more clearly than anyone else.

RESPONSE:

From SparkNotes, the poem is seen to be “quite simple but that actually describes complicated moral and psychological truths” (SparkNotes.com). From the literal layer, the poem can be read as the different opinion of success perceived by different people. To add on to the principles, Dickinson just inserted a decent example about the defeated party of an army. At first, without grasping a deeper meaning of the poem, I perceive the poem as telling a cliché or some general moral sense of people. It seems almost universal that people usually wish to possess something they have never done or had. Their curiosity and jealousy of other people urged them to accomplish something they see others’ having but they do not have. Therefore, I cannot see how this poem connects with “truths”.

However, when I go deeper into the juicy part of this poem, I am able to see how Dickinson was depicting the nature of human psyche and behavior. Also, this observation can also lead us to think about how human beings react to desires and wants. For those who lose, the negative consequences can be disastrous, including emotional collapse, casualty if in battles, or great hit on self-esteem. The unfavorable results lead to the occurrence of the psychological theory of negative reinforcement, which leads the losers to crave for success and try harder next time. The craving for success even becomes a desire or addiction that one can see the advantages of it as if it is under microscopes. As a result, the “forbidden ear,” those who are not allowed to taste the happiness of victory, often find success alluring and sweet. For the winners, they do not usually know the consequence of losing, for they often take the success as granted. Although they celebrate victory, they can only see the glorious side of it; they can never understand the price paid by the losers will go along with it. The winner’s understanding of victory is not well-rounded, because their pride often acts as a veil, blocking the blood and tears wasted because of their success. It is definitely a human nature to forget about the losers. Therefore, the poet asserted that the definition of success can only be clearly comprehended by the losers, but not the winners.