When we say "Emily Dickinson," what pops into your mind? If you're reading this, then words like "poet," "homework," and "Why does my English teacher hate me?" might run through your brain. Those in the know, however, associate Dickinson with words like "reclusive," "genius," and "ballad."
We cover those first two ideas over in "In a Nutshell," so for now let's focus on Dickinson's ballad form. Much of Dickinson's poems use it, and for good reason. It's a style of writing that came pretty naturally to her because she was regularly exposed to it in the form of church hymns. Check out "Amazing Grace" for just one example of a ballad.
To write a ballad, you'll first need two sets of lines. The first line should be laid out in iambic tetrameter, followed by a line in iambic trimeter. To see what we mean by that, try reading these two lines out loud. Go ahead, nobody's looking:
The distant strains of triumph
Burst agonized and clear! (11-12)
When you hears these lines, you should hear a repeating rhythmic pattern:
daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM
daDUM daDUM daDUM
Each "daDUM" represents a single iamb, which just a two-syllable pair in which the first syllable is unstressed, the second is stressed. If you have four of those in a single line, then you have iambic tetrameter (tetra- means four). If you have three of them, then you have iambic trimeter (tri- means three).
A typical ballad will start with a line of iambic tetrameter and then follow that up with a line of iambic trimeter, and that's just what we see going on here. We also see the ballad's typical rhyme scheme: ABCB, where each letter stands for that line's end rhyme. Check it out:
Success is counted sweetest A
By those who ne'er succeed. B
To comprehend a nectar C
Requires sorest need. (1-4) B
So, yeah, in terms of rhyme and meter, we have a pretty standard, traditional ballad form—as long as you ignore all the exceptions. And, folks, there are a ton of exceptions here.
Just look back at that first stanza to take one example. While it has the expected ballad rhyme scheme, its meter is out of step with the traditional form:
Success is counted sweetest (1)
Right off the bat, Dickinson lets us know that something's missing. It's the last up beat to this line. To put this in true iambic tetrameter, you would have to say something like "Success is counted sweetest, man." Okay, so we'll leave the poetry writing to Dickinson, but you get our point. The last iamb of this line is cut off. In terms of rhythm, we're left hanging.
Dickinson also fudges her rhyme scheme:
Not one of all the purple Host A
Who took the Flag today B
Can tell the definition C
So clear of victory (5-8) B*
*That last line, ending in "victory," kind of, sort of rhymes with line 6's "today," but it's a real stretch. That stretch is known as a slant rhyme and, like the cut-off iamb, it lets us that something's amiss.
Of course, that's pretty appropriate for a poem that's all about folks who will never get to attain what they most desire in life. For them, success is just out of reach, and the disturbances in the form and meter here reflect that.
Just because something's out of reach, though, doesn't mean you stop wanting it. That idea is reinforced by all the enjambment that's going on in this poem. Lines and stanzas are cut off mid-thought, only to pick back up again on the next line. This keeps us rushing to the next line to see what happens next, much like a person might hurry after the object of desire.
Unlike those poor folks, though, our desire is fulfilled when we arrive at the next line of the poem. Those for whom success is really sweetest are left hanging, with a sad trombone playing in the background.