"Being Alive" by Stephen Sondheim, 4

       Stanza seven makes a dizzying turn, Bobby welcoming the helter-skelter of relationship and life.  By stanza eight,  Bobby has worked his way through to acknowledging this turn from "alone" to "alive."

       And in the final ninth stanza the intensity of stanza four is reprised but with the same small word changes of five and six, bringing their height of emotional angst and yearning, Bobby pleading "Somebody crowd me with love," the intensity now at a peak.

       "Alive" appears a dozen times in stanzas four, five, six, eight, and nine:  Bobby and someone being "frightened" "of being alive,"  Bobby asking somebody to make him "aware of being alive,"  to "support" him "for being alive," to "make" him "alive,"  Bobby will "help us survive / Being alive." The repetitions and variations are exalting and affirming.