"A word is dead" - analysis 

Just considering the tittle the intelligent reader finds some curiosity that pushes him or her to make sense of the speaker’s point of view. 

Indeed why do you say that a word may die? What’s the point of using a personification to refer to a word? 

The two question are a sufficient reason to go in reading the text but simply giving a glance to the lay out you can easily realized the poem is arranged into 2 different part still following the same pattern of 2 tercet that play differents function. 

The reading experience allows the reader to find out the structure of the poet helps to convey 2 different opinions about the nature and live of words.

The speaking voice since to be taking distances from the opinion expresses by the “some say” of the first stanza and to analysis that she puts the subject and the verb at the end of the stanza thus drawing the reader’s attention of the opinion of an undefined group of people. 

Therefore word choice highlight the speaking voice different opinion.

Such opinion becomes the most relevant message of the text. 

It goes without saying that the key position of the subject pronoun “I” in the 2 tercet acquires a particular strength since it epitomises the meaning the speaking voice attributes to words. 

The intelligent reader perceives the opposition not only as the simple expression of 2 different opinion, on the contrary he or she caught by the contrast death/ life of the poem. The idea of death is encapsulated in the very first tercet where both the uses of the passive voice “when it is said” together with the rhyming couplet of the first 2 lines highlight of the concept.

The alliterative quality of the 3 line helps the reader to stick the first opinion in his/her mind.

The intelligent reader understands that the first opinion communicates no identity since indeed the opinion is of “some say”.

The speaking voice of the second tercet becomes therefore the strongest voice in the eventual opinion choice of the reader’s parts.

The use of the attive form helps and adds to the point. 

The semantic field of Time is a further devise to contribute to the poetess’ message. Speaking allows comunicazione and that is the reason why the speaking voice attribute so much importance to a word that becomes a living entity thanks to the use of personification which justifies the idea a word can either die or live. 

It should turn out a bit ridiculous that a poetess could accept the ideas the words have no life.