Steps to analyse a poem:

1. consider the title to find out possible expectation, curiosity and conjecture;

2. look at the layout, it gives us some clue, hints about the kind of the text;

3. to read the poem, check up to all the word, this procedure is called denotative analyse;

4. structural analyse, to understand the function that each part of the text plays in the overall the meaning of the text;

5. connotative analyse, it takes into consideration different levels that all together contribute to make the message.

   Levels:

• phonological: analyses all the aspect connected to sound => sound devices (repetition, refrain, consonance, assonance...)

• semantic: analyses word choice (how the poet decide to use the word, semantic fell, verb tense..)

• syntax: word order, anaphor (back-word), cataphor (foreword), deviation from the normal (Never I have seen a...)

• figure of speech;

6. argumentative structure.

A WORD IS DEAD

A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day.

Analysis:

Just considering the title the intelligent reader finds some curiosity that pushes him/her to make sense of the speakers point of view.

Indeed, why do you say that word might die? 

What's the point of using a personification to refer to a word.

The two questions are a sufficient reason to go on reading the text, but simply giving a glans to the layout you can easily realise the poem is arranged into 2 different parts still following the same patterns of two tercets that play a different function.

The reading experiences allows the reader to find out the structure of the poem helps to convey to different opinions about the nature and life of word.

The speaking voice seams to be taking distances from the opinion expressed by the "some say" of the first stanza and underline that she puts the subject and the verb at the end of the stanza, thus trowing the readers attention on the opinion of an unidentify group of people. 

Between the two tercets there is a lot of space tu underline the distance of the opinion.

Therefore such choice in word order highlights the speaking voice different opinions.

The intelligent reader can also see that in the first tercet dominates a passive meaning contrary as in the second tercet where dominates the active meaning.

This poem is about the rule of poetry and a correct way to communicate.

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 second 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 simply expression of two different opinion, on the contrary he/she is caught by the contrast death/life of the poem the idea of death is encapsulated the very first tercet where both the use of the passive voice ("when it is said") together with the run in of concept. The alliterative quality of the third 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 . Therefore the strongest voice in the eventual opinion choice on the reader's part.

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

The semantic feel of time is a further device to contribute to the poetess' message.

Speaking allows communication and they attributes so much important to a word that becomes a living entity thanks to the use of a personification which justifies the idea a word can either live or die.

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