Emily Dickinson (1830-86)

 

A word is dead       

 

A word is dead       

When it is said,         

Some say.     

I say it just    

Begins to live   5

That day          

 

Analysis

 

The title of this poem creates certain curiosity to the reader. It’s a metaphor. The reader can understand that is about a word, but he can’t understand why the narrator tell that is died, so he want to read to know more.

The layout of this poem seems to be composed by one only stanzas but there are two triplets. There is a third person narrator. There is not a regular rhyme, the rhyme scheme is: A-A-B-C-D-B. The first two lines are related with the rhyme and also the last one of every triplet. The poem was written in short, concise lines to emphasize the importance of each and every word used.

There are two run on lines, using this figure of speech the poetess makes the narration faster and continued. There is an anaphor of the sound “d”, dental and strong sound that creates the break reader. This poem moved from the general to he specific: from “some say” (line 3)- undefined type- to “that day”-defined moment.

In this poem the poetess examines the cycle of life. In the first triplet the reader can understand that when a word is said, its importance end. However, in the second triplet she said that when something is uttered it just start to live. There is a contrast between the first and the second triplets.

In my opinion the poetess wants to tell the reader that words never lose their meaning, the word being spoken remain. The reader who will be interested in this text is a person who wants to know more information about the cycle of the life.