Criticism Of "The Sick Rose"

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Thus, as a word, worm is meaningful only in the context of flower,
and flower only in the context of worm" (41). After Riffaterre's reading and in
terpretation of the poem, he concludes that "The Sick Rose" is composed of
"polarized polarities" (44) which convey the central object of the poem, the
actual phrase, "the sick rose" (44). He asserts that "because the text provides
all the elements necessary to our identifying these verbal artifacts, we do not
have to resort to traditions or symbols found outside the text" (44). Thus, "The
Sick Rose" is a self-sufficient text.

Hazard Adams takes a different approach to reading "The Sick Rose" than
most critics by cautioning the reader that often one "overlook[s] the fact that
a literary image primarily imitates its previous usages and secondarily what it
denotes in the outer world or in the realm of ideas" (13). Adams begins his
analysis with examining the rose, and by reminding the reader that in a
"literary world where the ...

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