112 (67) Success is counted sweetest
Emily Dickinson
“Success is counted sweetest” is a poem about success and how many people that succeed are not grateful. The ones that find success sweet are the people that have never succeeded. “Success is counted sweetest By those who ne’er succeeded” (1-2). The people that get the opportunity to be successful are the ones that do not appreciate their success as much as the ones who fail at being successful. Because they never succeeded, they find success the sweetest. The person that is not successful understands the meaning of being successful more than the person that is successful. Kind of like a starving homeless person appreciates food more than someone that has not ate food since breakfast and it happens to be dinner time already. “To comprehend a nectar Requires sorest need” (3-4). To fully understand why food, in this case nectar, is so wonderful, one must be in need of it.
The last two stanzas in this poem talk about winning and losing in a war. The soldiers that won the battle, and the soldiers that lost, will never truly understand the meaning of “Victory” as much as the soldiers that have died in battle. “Not one of all the purple Host Who took the Flag today” (5-6) Not one of the purple, meaning royal soldiers that took the flag, as in won the battle, could explain to anyone what victory is. They cannot do so because they do not “require sorest need” (4) of it.
The last two stanzas in this poem talk about winning and losing in a war. The soldiers that won the battle, and the soldiers that lost, will never truly understand the meaning of “Victory” as much as the soldiers that have died in battle. “Not one of all the purple Host Who took the Flag today” (5-6) Not one of the purple, meaning royal soldiers that took the flag, as in won the battle, could explain to anyone what victory is. They cannot do so because they do not “require sorest need” (4) of it.
The Rhodora
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The Rhodora” is poem asking why such beautiful flowers like the rhodora exists if it is hiding in the woods where no one will see it. With the first line in the poem, “On Being Asked, Whence Is the Flower?” (1) Emerson is asking where did this flower come from. It is so beautiful that it stands out. Especially being in the woods and surrounded by dark weeds, trees and dirt. “The purple petals, fallen in the pool, Made the black water with their beauty gay;” (5-6). The pedals of the flower are purple, and when they fell into the dark water, it made it look pretty.
In the ninth line of the poem, “Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why This charm is wasted on the earth and sky, Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing, Then Beauty is its own excuse for being:”(9-12) Emerson asks the red-bird that flew by why, if we have eyes that are made for seeing, do we not get to see all this beauty? Nature is hiding things from us. The beauty of this flower is being wasted because only the sky and earth can see it, and that is unfair. Later in the poem Emerson compares the rhodora to a rose. “Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose!” He calls it the rival, because it is just as beautiful. By making Power capitalized, it tells us that Emerson is talking about God. “The self-same Power that brought me there brought you.” (16) God brought these flower to earth and he also brought us. God brought him to the woods to see the rhodora flower, and God also brought us. Even though the rhodora flower a shrub, Emerson tells us that there is still beauty in everything around us. Nature is beautiful, we just have to stop seeing the negatives of everything.
Basically what Emerson is trying to ask though this poem is why do so many beautiful things exist when not everyone gets to see it all. Nature is beautiful and not many people take the time to realize that. Everything exists for a reason. It is up to us to figure out what that reason is.
In the ninth line of the poem, “Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why This charm is wasted on the earth and sky, Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing, Then Beauty is its own excuse for being:”(9-12) Emerson asks the red-bird that flew by why, if we have eyes that are made for seeing, do we not get to see all this beauty? Nature is hiding things from us. The beauty of this flower is being wasted because only the sky and earth can see it, and that is unfair. Later in the poem Emerson compares the rhodora to a rose. “Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose!” He calls it the rival, because it is just as beautiful. By making Power capitalized, it tells us that Emerson is talking about God. “The self-same Power that brought me there brought you.” (16) God brought these flower to earth and he also brought us. God brought him to the woods to see the rhodora flower, and God also brought us. Even though the rhodora flower a shrub, Emerson tells us that there is still beauty in everything around us. Nature is beautiful, we just have to stop seeing the negatives of everything.
Basically what Emerson is trying to ask though this poem is why do so many beautiful things exist when not everyone gets to see it all. Nature is beautiful and not many people take the time to realize that. Everything exists for a reason. It is up to us to figure out what that reason is.
A Noiseless Patient Spider
Walt Whitman
“A Noiseless Patient Spider” is a poem that about a spider that starts to work on his web and is trying to find the perfect spot. “I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated,” (2) Tells us that the narrator of this poem saw the spider on a little cliff standing alone. Because the spider is trying to find an area where he could put his web, lines 3-4 explain to us that his job can be very tiring and lonely. “Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them” (5). The spider keeps trying to shoot his web over and over again, hoping that soon, it will stick and he can proceed with the rest of the web.
Line six, “And you O my soul where you stand,” (6) begins to turn the poem into something different. Walt Whitman starts to talk about his own soul and how it stands just like the spider on a little promontory. Describing the spider in the beginning of the poem allows us to get a better understanding of how the soul is similar to the spider. “Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the sphere to connect them,” (8). The soul is constantly daydreaming, looking, taking a chance, and throwing itself looking for the right person to connect with. Even though the spider is not trying to connect with someone, it is trying to connect with a spot where he can start his web. The spider is also throwing string by string at objects, looking and hoping that the string will soon connect with the right spot.
Now in the two last lines of this poem Whitman tells us how the soul benefits when it finally catches what it is looking for. All that is need is the first right step, and then everything else will fall right into place. For the spider, finding the right place to attach his thread is a big success. Right after he find that spot, everything else will come easy. Same goes with the soul. “Till the ductile anchor hold,” tells that even if the soul connects to someone, or something, and starts to disconnect, the thread that it attached itself with can be pulled out without breaking.
When you start to love someone and your heart gets broke, you have to realize that the thread that was attached to that person is flexible. The anchor is pulling the thread down, but the anchor can be picked right back up and everything can go back to normal. You just have to be patient, just like the spider.
Line six, “And you O my soul where you stand,” (6) begins to turn the poem into something different. Walt Whitman starts to talk about his own soul and how it stands just like the spider on a little promontory. Describing the spider in the beginning of the poem allows us to get a better understanding of how the soul is similar to the spider. “Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the sphere to connect them,” (8). The soul is constantly daydreaming, looking, taking a chance, and throwing itself looking for the right person to connect with. Even though the spider is not trying to connect with someone, it is trying to connect with a spot where he can start his web. The spider is also throwing string by string at objects, looking and hoping that the string will soon connect with the right spot.
Now in the two last lines of this poem Whitman tells us how the soul benefits when it finally catches what it is looking for. All that is need is the first right step, and then everything else will fall right into place. For the spider, finding the right place to attach his thread is a big success. Right after he find that spot, everything else will come easy. Same goes with the soul. “Till the ductile anchor hold,” tells that even if the soul connects to someone, or something, and starts to disconnect, the thread that it attached itself with can be pulled out without breaking.
When you start to love someone and your heart gets broke, you have to realize that the thread that was attached to that person is flexible. The anchor is pulling the thread down, but the anchor can be picked right back up and everything can go back to normal. You just have to be patient, just like the spider.