What is success?

Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires the 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
Break, agonized and clear.

By: Emily Dickinson (circa 1859)