longer have to worry about death. The ending of this poem is somewhat odd and problematical. The speaker seems to be implying that by giving up his emotions, by denying himself the activity associated with those emotions (namely sex), then all he has to look forward to is death. The couplet might also be implying that by giving up such earthly pleasure, the speaker is experiencing a kind of death anyway.
In the following poem, we discover that the speaker has not been so successful in putting his emotions to rest. He still craves earthly love.