The first procedure in a textual analysis is to consider the title. The first question is: where is the title? Traditional poems used (as the title of the text) the first line of the poem itself so, we can affirm that the title of the poem in question is : “A WORD is dead”   

It is important to analyze the title because it may anticipate something about the content of the poem so, considering it, the reader makes conjectures and hypothesis about the possible content. In addition it has generally the function to raise the reader’s attention and to create expectations.

 Looking at the title of this poem I wonder why the poetess used the adjective “dead” to refer to a word which has no life.

Secondly, I wonder why the poetess might have written the word “WORD” in capital letters. Probably, she wanted to focus the reader’s attention on that word, which was really significant for her.

Finally, I wonder what is the word she referred to.

After considering the title the reader analyzes the layout, that is the way words appear on the page.

Looking at the layout I can realize that the poem consists of two stanzas, which have three lines, and I ask myself what are their aims and which type of relation is there between them.