The speaker juxtaposes the ways they do and do not love their subject in this poem. how does this emphasize the theme of sonnet xvii?

At the beginning of the poem, he says why he does not love her. He doesn't love her as if she was a salt-rose, topaz, or carnation, but he loves her as if she was a plant that does not bloom. This means that he does not love her superficially, but he loves her deeply for who she is on the inside.

Flowers are beautiful things that everyone admires, but no one would admire a flower that doesn’t bloom because they could not see the beauty that it contains.

most likely the answer would be a.) cupidity

definitions:

cupidity - greed for money or possessions

hydrophobia - extreme or irrational fear of water, especially as a symptom of rabies in humans

pathology - the science of the causes and effects of diseases, especially the branch of medicine that deals with the laboratory examination of samples of body tissue for diagnostic or forensic

patho -   relating to disease

the words “strangest” and “unusual” suggest that the narrator is about to tell the story of an odd or puzzling group of people.