Sonnet 146

I find sonnet 146 especially interesting because the speaker seems to be talking more about himself, rather than directing his comments toward the subject. In the first quatrain, the speaker presents the question of why he starves his soul, while dressing up his body. The second quatrain makes a huge distinction that he is more than his body. He is only in his body only for a short time, and after that his body will decay. So, why spend effort trying to make it beautuful? The third quatrain no longer focuses on the limitations of the body, but rather on the importance of the soul. He tells his soul to thrive at the expense of his body. The couplet ends the sonnet by stating that once one feeds his soul instead of his body, he will outlast death. I enjoy this poem so much because while reading it, I do not feel as though the writer wrote it for someone else to read. It sounds much like an internal monologue or struggle – something like a diary entry. The pain about aging and feeling worthless that the speaker feels is made clear through the words that Shakespeare uses, making the sonnet almost painful for the reader to read as well.