Emily Dickinson: Success

This is another one of Dickinson's poems that I really like because of how thought provoking it is and how she paints pictures in my mind with so few words.  
Though none of her original poems were titled, the editor called this one "Success."


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 to-day
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!

What she is saying in this poem is so true.  It is the person that was so close to success and victory and yet ended the day defeated that knows the true definition of success rather than the victorious one.  

Emily Dickinson: Hope

This is one of my favorite poems by one of my favorite poets.  Emily Dickinson is very unique in her poetry because she mostly wrote from her imagination.  She was VERY shy her entire life, and lived in seclusion, and has a very interesting outlook on life because of this seclusion.  I love how she describes hope in this poem.  

Hope is the thing with feathers 

That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

Emily Dickinson is definitely one that I would love to write like some day, though never live like her.  I believe that God designed us to live in community.