Textuality » 3PLSC TextualityAVidal - A word is dead by Emily Dickinson
by 2019-02-24)
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A Word Is Dead is a poem written by Emily Dickinson. Just considering the title, the reader may expect the poem to deal with words and their life. They are probably living entities because the speaking voice uses the word "Dead". The layout shows the composition consists of six lines arranged into two similar patterns: two tercets, that are stanzas of three lines each, separated by a full stop. It follows that the reader wants to know the reason of such structure. Taking structure into a count, the reader has to read the text to find out content and later became aware of the functions of the two tercets in the economy of the poem. The speaking voice reports common people's opinion about the life of a word once it is said. At the same time the speaker expresses his point-of-view on the matter discussed and asserts her strong opinion: words start living when said. Structure alone does not underline the personal conviction of the poetess: the alternation of passive and active form of verbs add to meaning. "It is said" in the first tercet find its correspondent expression in "I say" in the second one. There is no need to highlight how passivity and activity refer to opposite states of life and as a result the intelligent reader may well understand that meaning is the result of a contrast that manifest its strength through structure, verb form and last but not least syntax and semantic choices. |