By reading the title the first word which strikes the reader’s attention is “word”, definitely related with “dead” at the end of the line; this adjective’s use is unusual because it’s often referred to a person and not to objects. Besides the title is a metaphor and includes a tenor (word) and a vehicle (dead) linked by the ground. The first question the intelligent reader should pose is “Which is that word?”. His curiosity might bring him to find which the word is.

Considering the layout one can say all lines are quite short, even if some of them are longer than the other; the poem is arranged into six lines divided at line 3 into two stanza, made up of three lines (tercets), with different functions. The poetess chose to use short and concise lines to emphasize each single word, because by using a few terms the intelligent reader will concentrate on every single meaning.

The intelligent reader can read between the lines and glimpse the third person narrator from line 3 with the expression “some say”. On the other side in the second stanza a first person narrator appears: she expresses (we know the poetess is a woman) her own opinion about the life cycle of the world. The poetess has organized  the poem into two tercets because they are in contrast and they express two different opinions: this implies they have also different functions in the poem. The first stanza expresses an ordinary people’s judgment, while the second one is linked with the poetess own opinion. The use of two run-on-line (or enjambement) creates a pattern and gives a faster rhythm encouraging the intelligent reader in reading quicker and quicker. Moreover the rhyme scheme (AABCDB) highlights two couple of words: the first one gives a kind of musicality while expressing a universal opinion, but the second links two distant lines, the third and the sixth; the third is in an undefined time, while the last is situated in a precise time arrangement. So the intelligent reader can understand the poetess gives much importance to her judgment about the life cycle, instead of thinking more about ordinary opinions. Besides alliterative sounds at line 3 of the letter S are quite liquid and far from the heavy alliteration of the first two lines. So this repetition tells the reader the differences between the two tercets’ sounds: death versus life, death stops everything while life is characterized  by a fluent sound which gives continuation.

The intelligent reader can now read between the lines and understand the poet’s purpose: poetry is alive only when someone reads it and the poem is an argumentation to the poetess’ thesis. Ordinary people think a word dies after uttered, while the poetess asserts the opposite: in her opinion a word never loses his own meaning or importance once they’re spoken.