Love's Dog Analysis

diagnosis and prognosis

start and end

medical lexicon – the pain of love?

Structured around

Antithetical metaphors highlight the duality and complexity of love

eat-me/drink me

Allusion to Alice in Wonderland

fantasy, excitement

What I love

anaphoric couplet

doubloons

semantic field of pirate/adventure stories

bird bones

macabre reference

fragile, delicate

hidden vulnerability

boil-wash

plosive ‘b’ sound

darker and more angry

painful but clean

spin-cycle

exciting fast

burntt toast and bonemeal

burnt toast, sensory imagery of failure and routing, irritating mistakes with living with someone

bonemeal – death

decay and death

pirate and sick parrot

pirate represents exiting adventre

sick parrot, inversion of pirate, parrot on pirate’s shoulder but parrot is sick, so unwell parts of a relationship

niche point – near homophone of pirate and parrot shows how close love and hate really are