Success
Success - meaning Summary
Success's Lonely Aftermath
The poem depicts a man who has fought hard and ostensibly achieved success, yet arrives bowing under care and despair. External honors and publicity cannot rouse or comfort him; he is isolated, numb, and haunted by loss. Returning from the "Mountains of Success," he sees a dead, diminished world and symbolic pauper monuments rather than reward. The poem suggests victory can be hollow and socially indifferent to personal cost.
Read Complete AnalysesDid you see that man riding past, With shoulders bowed with care? There’s failure in his eyes to last, And in his heart despair. He seldom looks to left or right, He nods, but speaks to none, And he’s a man who fought the fight God knows how hard! and won. No great review could rouse him now, No printed lies could sting; No kindness smooth his knitted brow, Nor wrong one new line bring. Through dull, dumb days and brooding nights, From years of storm and stress, He’s riding down from lonely heights The Mountains of Success. He sees across the darkening land The graveyards on the coasts; He sees the broken columns stand Like cold and bitter ghosts; His world is dead while yet he lives, Though known in continents; His camp is where his country gives Its pauper monuments.
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