Sonnet CXLVI

Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth,
Fool’d by 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.

Traditional interpretation

This is viewed as one of the few religious sonnets in the collection. The lover, tired of endlessly battering at the impregnable walls of the beloved's chastity, might as a final protest retire to the contemplative and religious life. It is also taken to be a rebuke against fine clothing and extravagance, and offering advice to his mistress on how to change her ways and be a good woman for him.

Elucidation

It is hard to interpret this sonnet in any manner other than of religious or spiritual intent, although it doesn’t explicitly mention the word “God”. This sonnet exhorts the reader to devote less attention to the physical body (the “servant”), and instead nourish the soul – for example, through contemplation or meditation. Time spent in this way (buying terms divine) is food for the soul. There is no point in dressing the physical body in fancy clothes or engaging in trivial activities as death will come to all of us soon enough. Consequently, this investment in the physical body will only be of benefit to the worms that eat the corpse! The final two lines state that a spiritual life is the path to immortality (enlightenment), the goal of the passionate pilgrim.