Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
William Shakespeare. 15641616164. Sonnets xx
POOR soul, the centre of my sinful earth— | |
My sinful earth these rebel powers 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, | 5 |
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; | 10 |
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. |