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Emily DickinsonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The speaker in “Success is counted sweetest” parallels “nectar” (Line 3) with the experience of success. The two definitions of “nectar” offer insight into the role of the symbol in the poem. One definition of nectar describes it as the juice of flowers and plants that bees collect and use to make honey. Nectar, in this case, necessary to life. Dickinson writes that to “comprehend” (Line 3), or to understand and appreciate, nectar “[r]equires sorest need” (Line 4). One must be without the nectar and wanting for it in order to truly and fully acknowledge its significance and importance. Just as nectar is necessary for life, the drive toward success is powerfully motivating for individuals.
The other definition of nectar traces back to Greek and Roman mythology, where nectar was considered to be the drink of the gods. Nectar “had the magical property to confer immortality on any mortal who had the luck to drink it…It was a grave offense to steal either nectar or ambrosia” (“Nectar.” Greek Mythology.com). Since the speaker in “Success is counted sweetest” parallels nectar with success, this reading of the symbol suggests that success is exclusive, rare, and unattainable by mere mortals.
By Emily Dickinson
A Bird, came down the Walk
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A Clock stopped—
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A narrow Fellow in the Grass (1096)
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Because I Could Not Stop for Death
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"Faith" is a fine invention
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Fame Is a Fickle Food (1702)
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Hope is a strange invention
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"Hope" Is the Thing with Feathers
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I Can Wade Grief
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I Felt a Cleaving in my Mind
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I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain
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If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking
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If I should die
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If you were coming in the fall
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I heard a Fly buzz — when I died
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I'm Nobody! Who Are You?
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Much Madness is divinest Sense—
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Tell all the truth but tell it slant
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The Only News I Know
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There is no Frigate like a Book
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