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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.
In the final two lines of the first stanza, the speaker makes a comment on the effect of need or desire on an experience: in order to “comprehend” (Line 3) or value almost anything, there must be “sorest need” (Line 4). “Sorest need” implies some sort of desperation that leads to appreciation. Similarly, then, failure is necessary to the ability to value success. In order to be able to tell the good times from the bad, and the positives from the negatives, an individual has to actually experience low periods in life, periods characterized by the challenges of failure and despair. It is the experience of these low periods that makes the individual truly appreciate the good times, the victories, and a sense of ease.
In the metaphor of the battle, the “purple Host” (Line 5) who achieve the “Flag” (Line 6) and gain “victory” (Line 8) are the ones who are unable to “tell the definition” (Line 7) of victory themselves. They cannot even identify the success that lies before them. On the other hand, the individual who is “defeated” and “dying” (Line 9) is the one who hears the “agonized and clear” (Line 12) music of victory, coveting what the victory that belongs to someone else.
By Emily Dickinson
A Bird, came down the Walk
Emily Dickinson
A Clock stopped—
Emily Dickinson
A narrow Fellow in the Grass (1096)
Emily Dickinson
Because I Could Not Stop for Death
Emily Dickinson
"Faith" is a fine invention
Emily Dickinson
Fame Is a Fickle Food (1702)
Emily Dickinson
Hope is a strange invention
Emily Dickinson
"Hope" Is the Thing with Feathers
Emily Dickinson
I Can Wade Grief
Emily Dickinson
I Felt a Cleaving in my Mind
Emily Dickinson
I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain
Emily Dickinson
If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking
Emily Dickinson
If I should die
Emily Dickinson
If you were coming in the fall
Emily Dickinson
I heard a Fly buzz — when I died
Emily Dickinson
I'm Nobody! Who Are You?
Emily Dickinson
Much Madness is divinest Sense—
Emily Dickinson
Tell all the truth but tell it slant
Emily Dickinson
The Only News I Know
Emily Dickinson
There is no Frigate like a Book
Emily Dickinson