Sonnet 146

1 Poor soul the centre of my sinful earth,
2 My sinful earth these rebel powers array,
3 Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth
4 Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?
5 Why so large cost having so short a lease,
6 Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend?
7 Shall worms inheritors of this excess
8 Eat up thy charge? is this thy body’s end?
9 Then soul live thou upon thy servant’s loss,
10 And let that pine to aggravate thy store;
11 Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross;
12 Within be fed, without be rich no more,
13 So shall thou feed on death, that feeds on men,
14 And death once dead, there’s no more dying then.