Monday, January 20, 2014

On the inheritance of worms

Dark sonnet from the Dark Lady cycle on dark afternoon:
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CXLVI

  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,
  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 shall thou feed on Death, that feeds on men,
    And Death once dead, there's no more dying then.
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Bright point:  Three whole quatrains of non-falsifiable speech to start the sonnet.  Line 7 would be the highlight  J  A volta at the Petrarchan position:  The then at the beginning of the third quatrain introduces the imperative.  Another volta at the Shakespearean position:  The so at the beginning of the closing couplet introduces the justification for the imperative.  Another sonnet:  Tomorrow.

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