In the poem Success is Counted Sweetest, by Emily Dickinson, the author uses varied imagery to state the speaker’s attitude of the war as well as the theme. The speaker believes that there is no victory in war due to all the deaths accompanying the battle. This is shown with the various instances of imagery, very descriptive words that paint a picture in the reader’s mind, such as success being nectar, vivid descriptions of the soldiers in the war having difficulty defining their victory, and the defeated, dying listening to the distant triumph as they covet victory. The word choice in the imagery, diction, leads to the speaker’s attitude. This poem has various examples of negative connotations that show how the speaker believes war is a terrible
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The poem consists of three main points, to understand the value of something you must lack it, the victorious in war cannot define their victory, and lastly the unsuccessful of the battle desire victory the most. In the beginning the speaker proclaims, “Success is counted sweetest By those who ne’er succeed. To comprehend a nectar Requires sorest need” (1-4). The speaker is directly stating that to understand success you must be in need of it. In this poem the example is of the victor and the loser in a war. The victorious cannot understand victory due to all the deaths while the defeated have an insatiable hunger for the nectar called success. The speaker continues by stating, “Not one of all the purple host [...] Can tell the definition, So clear, of victory” (5-8). She refers to the victorious side of the war as lacking the ability to define their victory. War is known to take many lives and just as in almost every case it could not be defined as a victory due to the loss of lives. The speaker implies war is not worth all of the deaths that occur because of it, this further strengthens that the speaker’s attitude toward the topic of war is one that is highly unsupporting. The narrator then goes on to the losers of the war, “As he, defeated,
The poem consists of three main points, to understand the value of something you must lack it, the victorious in war cannot define their victory, and lastly the unsuccessful of the battle desire victory the most. In the beginning the speaker proclaims, “Success is counted sweetest By those who ne’er succeed. To comprehend a nectar Requires sorest need” (1-4). The speaker is directly stating that to understand success you must be in need of it. In this poem the example is of the victor and the loser in a war. The victorious cannot understand victory due to all the deaths while the defeated have an insatiable hunger for the nectar called success. The speaker continues by stating, “Not one of all the purple host [...] Can tell the definition, So clear, of victory” (5-8). She refers to the victorious side of the war as lacking the ability to define their victory. War is known to take many lives and just as in almost every case it could not be defined as a victory due to the loss of lives. The speaker implies war is not worth all of the deaths that occur because of it, this further strengthens that the speaker’s attitude toward the topic of war is one that is highly unsupporting. The narrator then goes on to the losers of the war, “As he, defeated,