Emily Dickinson found ways to make words come to life. Many
lines from her poetry are simple, but convey a deeper message. I enjoyed some
of her poetry. The majority, I found fairly easy to follow. Some lines in her
poetry I find difficult to understand. What did she mean the words to say? Her
writings are easier to follow than Whitman's. Dickinson found a way to make me contemplate
deep feelings and thoughts.
Success
is counted sweetest is my favorite poem from the assigned readings. She
explains success, triumph, and victory are not savored to their fullest by
those who obtain them. She explains a dying soldier appreciates victory more
than the men shouting for victory. I think she has a valid point. I understand
her thinking. However, I believe the soldiers are probably ecstatic and
appreciative that they are alive. Does Dickinson believe success is not satisfying?
Does success mean more to the loser? I believe success is satisfying. Some
situations could cause success to be less satisfying. What is success? Who
decides what success is? Only an individual can gauge their own success. I believe
success should be measured by happiness, not gauged by accomplishments or
victories.
I think you appreciate success more if you have to overcome great hardships to obtain it. Those soldiers got shot at and will no doubt have emotional trauma for the rest of their life, but losing your life is considered by most to be worse than losing your psychological comfort. I also think the poem may be metaphorical in the sense that the success killed the soldier. How often do people work themselves to death in order to gain some perceived necessity or goal? CEOs work themselves to the ground all the time.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think of Alanis Morrisette's song "Ironic"--"won the lottery and died the next day". Obviously, winning one battle isn't winning the lottery (or even the war). But that one success, in the worldview, isn't much. But to them, it's everything. And to the guy who died it HAS to be worth something, or else he died in vain.
I can really relate to your comment about how easy it is read Dickson. Sometimes there are those poets who try to make you think by proposing the material in such a complex way that you find yourself questioning the meaning to every word. With Dickson, I found that I like questioning what she meant, because she used "regular" people lingo to get her messages across. It seems like that would be more powerful because it's easier to relate.
ReplyDeleteI like how you addressed 'success' in Dickinson's Success is Counted Sweetest because it is such a subjective thing.I think your right in that happiness is a way to measure how successful you are instead of victories or losses. However I also agree with what I think Dickinson is saying - that those that have lost what they desire value succevss more than the victor. I think this is because losing what you want has a longer emotional effect than winning.
ReplyDelete