So, the speaker cannot see the sense in allowing the body to become so full of harmful emotion. Although the speaker does not bring in the idea of God in his poem, the question could be addressed to God. Why does God allow man to experience such sinful emotions for the short period of time that he is on the earth?
In the sestet the speaker vows to work on the soul's behalf at the expense of his body's enjoyment. To put it more simply, the speaker vows to give up sex so that he can make his soul stronger. In the first line of the third quatrain (line 9), the speaker refers to the body (in another metaphor) as the "servant" to the soul. The "servant's loss" is the loss of physical or emotional pleasure (sex) so that the soul will thrive or grow stronger. In the following line the pronoun that also refers to the body. Let the body "pine" or be sad, the speaker adds, so that the soul's "store" of goodness becomes larger. A reader might recall the book of Good Deeds that stored or recorded all of the good deeds committed by Everyman in the medieval play entitled Everyman. Thus, the speaker plans to experience hours of boredom or inactivity ("dross") so that his soul shall become more holy or good or "divine." The speaker will enrich his soul ("within") but will deprive his body ("without"). Simply put, the speaker will give up sex.
In the couplet at the end of this sonnet, the speaker concludes that the soul will become stronger upon his death -- the death that takes (or "feeds on") all men. And once he is dead, the speaker will no