Sonnet 146
Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth,
soul
body
mortality
religion
Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth,
[ ] these rebel powers that thee array;
Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth,
Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?
Why so large cost, having so short a lease,
Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend?
Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,
Eat up thy charge? is this thy body's end?
Then soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss,
And let that pine to aggravate thy store;
Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross;
Within be fed, without be rich no more:
So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men,
And Death once dead, there's no more dying then.
What It Means
Shakespeare addresses his own soul, locked inside his body. Why spend so much on the physical body — feeding it, clothing it — when it will just decay? The body is the soul's enemy. The soul should starve the body and feed on the body's substance, gaining thereby a kind of life that doesn't end. The argument is Augustinian: worldly investment in flesh is a waste; spiritual investment is the only lasting one.
Context
Part of the Dark Lady sequence, though it stands somewhat outside it thematically. Sonnet 146 is the only sonnet in the sequence primarily concerned with theology and the soul.
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