| Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900. |
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| William Shakespeare. 1564–1616 |
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164. Sonnets
xx |
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| 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. | |
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