Question

How does this sound?

Answer 1

In Emily D I C K I N S O N' S poem "Success is counted sweetest" she explores ostensible failure in her paradox puzzle. The narrator uses impassive and impersonal thoughts to tell a story of a solider seeing success out of his failure. There are many metaphors used in her poem that carry her message, that those who fail the most are the ones who may appreciate their personal triumphs. She deals with success directly in two metaphors: starvation and defeat in battle. These obviously tell us that nectar tastes good if you're hungry or starving and victory is sweetest to those who have lost, because there's no way they would take it for granted. D I C K I N S O N has succeeded to imply in her poem that learning from our failures, we are really being taught to appreciate our accomplishments.

Answer 2

Good start. One challenge: the characters in the poem appreciate OTHER PEOPLE'S accomplishments, not their own, right? And, meanwhile, the victorious people on the battle play victory music that's "agonized." Shouldn't they be 100% happy? What might that say about success and failure? There's no right or wrong answer, but whoever reads your ideas about that is going to be interested!

P.S. Make sure to put all phrases into your own words! You wouldn't want your teacher to Google what you wrote and realize that someone else had typed those words before without your citing them, right?