"Who never lost, are unprepared" By Emily Dickinson [Analysis]

Who never lost, are unprepared[1] A Coronet to find![2] Who never thirsted[3] Flagons, and Cooling Tamarind![4] Who never climbed the weary league --[5] Can such a foot explore[6] The purple territories[7] On Pizarro's shore?[8] How many Legions overcome --[9] The Emperor will say?[10] How many Colors taken[11] On Revolution Day?[12] How many Bullets bearest?[13] Hast Thou the Royal scar?[14] Angels! Write "Promoted"[15] On this Soldier's brow![16]
Poem 73 [F136] "Who never lost, are unprepared" Analysis by David Preest [Poem]

Aeschylus says in his play Agamemnon, 'Things go by turns.' And so they do in this poem. First failure, then success. Thirst, then a drink and the fruit of the Tamarind tree (or its shade). Hard days of marching with Pizarro, and then the triumphant sight of the Pacific from the shores of Peru. And the greatest example of this principle: first the wounds and scars of life's journey, then God instructing his angels to admit us to heaven. In reading the poem we find a stress on the word 'Flagons,' which is taken from its metrical place at the end of the previous line, and put at the beginning of the normally shorter second line of the pair. Also, as George Whicher points out, lines 6-8 echo lines 8-10 of poem 15. In ch. 4 of Mrs Gaskell's Wives and Daughters Mrs Gibson, describing the life of a doctor's apprentice, says, 'And on Sundays he shall have a taste of tamarinds to reward him for his weekly labour at pill-making.'
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