sick – 6
destroy – 5
bed – 1
invisible – 5
howling – 1
rose – 1
worm – 1
secret – 1
sick
roses — associations – with love/romance/ or death
contradicts idea that roses are supposed to be beautiful
sick – physical/mental – change in mood
TONE
ROSE
WORM
SPEAKER
rose and worm as one — poem describes self-destruction
first line — speaking to self
invisible worm — jealous love
invisibility – suggests figure unaware of what’s going on — gives the poem a lot of power
lovesickness as a tape-worm
alcoholism — something you love destroys you from within
parasite
overpowering influence poisonous to that thing
ex. rose as rainforest, people as worm
stuck – become what the secret love makes you by
Other Approaches
— History of the language
—- researching what words meant at that time
— Author
— Biography
— Love life
— corpus body of work/genre
