Defeat may serve as well as victory to shake the soul and let the glory out.

Markham suggests that failure can be as spiritually and morally catalytic as success. “Defeat” is not merely loss; it is a force that can “shake the soul,” breaking complacency, pride, or illusion and exposing deeper reserves of character. The image of “letting the glory out” implies that inner greatness—courage, humility, resilience, compassion—may remain latent until hardship cracks the shell. In this view, adversity becomes a kind of revelation: it tests what a person is made of and can release a truer, more luminous self than victory, which sometimes flatters rather than transforms.