A poetry analysis of Emily Dickinson's 'Death is the Supple Suitor'

1. A POETRY ANALYSIS OF EMILY DICKINSON'S
DEATH IS THE SUPPLE SUITOR : METAPHOR,
SYMBOLISM AND PERSONIFICATION
By Irene Heni Indrasakti

2. 1. Abstract
In this paper, the writer would like to analyze the intrinsic
elements of Emily Dickinson's Death is the Supple Suitor. The
purpose is to understand the meaning of the poem beyond its
written words. To analyze this poem, the writer use figurative
languages. In this poem, Dickinson mostly used symbolism
and metaphor. It can be concluded that figurative languages
held important role in order to understand the poem.
• Keywords : Emily Dickinson, Symbolism, Personification,
Metaphor, Poetry

3. 2. Introduction
Reading a poem can be tricky and sometimes it could be
difficult to some people. Many poems aren’t written based on
the literal meaning. Death is the Supple Suitor written by
Emily Dickinson has a great way how Dickinson pictured
‘death’. In our society, death is often captured as sad and
terrifying condition. In this poem, Dickinson wants to show
that death is something peaceful and nice. It has a lot of
excitement about Dickinson’s death description.

4. 3. Theory and Methods
3.1 Metaphor
Based on William Flint Thrall and Addison Hibbard in their
book, A Handbook to Literature (1960:281), metaphor is “an
implied analogy which imaginatively identifies one object with
another and ascribes to the first one or more of the second or
invests the first with emotional or imaginative qualities
associated with the second”.

5. 3. Theory and Methods
3.2 Symbolism
According to Laurence Perrine (1969:83), “A symbol may be
roughly defined that means more than what it is”.

6. 3. Theory and Methods
3.3 Personification
Based on Laurence Perrine (1969:67), “Personification
consists in giving the attributes of a human being to an animal,
an object, or an idea. It is really a subtype of metaphor, an
implied comparison in which the figurative term of the
comparison is always a human being”.

7. 4. Biography of the Poet and the Poem
4.1 Biography of the Poet
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson, one of the greatest American poets, was
born in Amherst, Massachusetts, on December 10, 1830. She is the second
child of Emily and Edward Dickinson. She lived simply and deliberately;
she fronted the essential facts of life. Dickinson wrote more than 1000
poems during her period of life and most of them were printed
anonymously. She wrote about the most important things in life; nature,
love and lover, mortality and immortality, success and failure. She wrote it
simply but beautifully. She also refused to work based on literary work’s
standard that time.

8. 4. Biography of the Poet and the Poem
4.2 The Poem
Death is the supple Suitor
That wins at last—
It is stealthy Wooing
Conducted first
By pallid innuendos
And dim approach
But brave at last with Bugles
And a bisected Coach
It bears away in triumph
To Troth unknown
And Kindred as responsive
As Porcelain

9. 4. Biography of the Poet and the Poem
4.3 Paraphrase
This poem is about the poet who found out that death was
not a terrible thing. She compared death as a suitor; a male
groom. She also talked about immortality and family in this
poem. Death is like marriage, when two people went away to
their 'new life'.

10. 5. Discussion
5.1 Metaphor
Death is the supple Suitor (line 1)
In this poem, Death is identified as a suitor. Suitor is a
person or exactly a man who proposes a woman to marry him.
Through this poem, she wants the reader to imagine that Death
is kind, supple, and flexible. Death can come anytime,
anywhere.

11. 5. Discussion
5.1 Metaphor
But brave at last with Bugles
And a bisected Coach
It bears away in triumph (line 9)
The writer thinks that Dickinson compared Death with a
kind of wedding ceremony or we could say a ‘journey’. They
went away with the rousing celebration; everyone was happy
for them.The writer thinks the poem contains both metaphor
and symbolism which can not be parted away.

12. 5. Discussion
5.2 Symbolism
Conducted first
By pallid innuendos (line 5)
Pallid innuendos, according to dictionary, pallid means
“pale; looking ill” and innuendos means “indirect remark
about somebody or something, usually suggesting something
bad or rude”. In this paper, the writer would like to say that it
symbolized sickness or illness through the old age.

13. 5. Discussion
5.2 Symbolism
And dim approach
But brave at last with Bugles (line 7)
Dickinson picked the word ‘bugles’ to symbolize the
funeral. Funeral is usually sad, dark and depressing for some
people, but in this poem she pictured it as an rousing event;
both funeral and wedding ceremony are always full of people.
Besides, the writer thinks Dickinson picked the word ‘bugles’
to remove the depicted picture about funeral. She wants the
reader to feel and imagine that death is not always miserable.

14. 5. Discussion
5.2 Symbolism
And a bisected Coach (line 8)
The writer thinks that the reason Dickinson used the word
‘bisected’ because there is a separation; a part splits into two.
The Death and the poet went away to unknown place (possibly
another ‘world’) by using the carriage and also, the poet’s soul
is separated from her body.

15. 5. Discussion
5.2 Symbolism
It bears away in triumph (line 9)
Through this line, Dickinson wants to convince the reader
that she clearly offered the idea of symbolizing death as a
wedding ceremony. Triumph, in the writer’s opinion often
linked to celebration; the point of a main event. In addition,
triumph symbolized the feeling of peace and relieved. The
poet also wants the reader to recall the time when people say
that the dead people’s souls are peaceful ‘up there’. It is that
kind of feeling which the poet wants to tell the readers.

16. 5. Discussion
5.2 Symbolism
And Kindred as responsive
As Porcelain (line 12)
Porcelain, in this poem, symbolized a kind of boundary of
human in life. Porcelain is a material which is fragile and
easily broken. In life, not all people are related to each other,
but in the afterlife they are all. They are united by breaking all
the boundaries. Basically, back to where human first created;
they are all united. In the afterlife, all those boundaries can be
easily broken similar to porcelain.

17. 5. Discussion
5.3 Personification
It is stealthy Wooing (line 3)
The word ‘it’ refers to Death. Death which is not a living
creature can persuade the woman. Dickinson gives an
impression that Death is a living creature; he even can talk
politely. Other living creature is not able to persuade; only
human being is able to do it.

18. 5. Discussion
5.3 Personification
It bears away in triumph (line 9)
Similar to the first quotation, the word ‘it’ also refers to
Death. In general, bears away means walk away. Death is not
a human being; it can not walk or run. Death went away to the
new life.

19. 6. Conclusion
To sum up, they are metaphor, symbolism and
personification in the poem. The most prominent one is
symbolism. Even though the vocabulary is quite familiar, but
it is not so easy to understand the poem. The poem, however,
is written beautifully and uniquely through how Emily see
death and symbolize it; remarkably Emily Dickinson’s literary
work.

20. 7. References
Thrall, William Flint and Addison Hibbard. 1960. A Handbook to Literature. New
York: The Odyssey Press.
Perrine, Laurence. 1969. 3rd ed. Sound and Sense. United States of America: Harcourt,
Brace & World.
Oxford Learner’s Pocket Dictionary. 2008. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 1989. 3rd ed. W.W. Norton &
Company.
Bode, Carl. 1995. Highlight of American Literature. Washington, D.C. : English
Teaching Division, Educational and Cultural Affairs, International
Communications Agency. files.eric.ed.gov,
<http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED417420.pdf>