A Word is Dead

The title's analysis

The title is short and very simple. The reader (through the two words “Word” and “Dead”) deduces that the subject of this poem is the life of a word. This title creates a lot of expectation in the reader so that he is pushed by the title to read the poem and to understand why the poetess wants to discuss about a word’s life.

The denotative analysis

The poetess stars with the statement about the life of a word. She points out that somebody says that a word dies when it is pronounced by someone. In her opinion a word begins to live when it is said.

The structure of the poem

The poem is structured in two tercets. The poetess use this layout because she wants to separate somebody’s opinion from her opinion about a word’s life. In the first tercet she quotes the opinion of some people: according to then a word dies when it said by someone. In the second tercet the poetess expresses her opinion which is in opposition to the first statement. She thinks that when a word is said it begins to live.

The connotative analysis

In this text the poetess refers to two opposite statements about the life of a word, opening a debate about this topic. The reader can choose the best opinion. He can notice a try of persuasion. In the fist tercet, where there is the opinion in opposition to the poetess’ opinion, the main clause is put in the third line and the subject is unclear (“Some”), this creates in the reader uncertainty. In the second tercet the poetess puts the main clause in the first line and the subject is clear (“I”), putting in evidence her opinion and creating in the reader a sense of certainty.