SUCCESS IS COUNTED SWEETEST

1 Success is counted sweetest
2 By those who ne'er succeed.
3 To comprehend a nectar
4 Requires sorest need.

5 Not one of all the purple host
6 Who took the flag to-day
7 Can tell the definition,
8 So clear, of victory,

9 As he, defeated, dying,
10 On whose forbidden ear
11 The distant strains of triumph
12 Break, agonized and clear.