A Dialogue between the Soul and the Body Life, Consciousness, and Existence Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Line)

Quote #1

And warms and moves this needless frame,
(A fever could but do the same) (15-16)

The body's ambivalence about living really comes out here. It calls itself purposeless and compares the experience of being alive to having a fever—not exactly reveling in the day-to-day.

Quote #2

And, wanting where its spite to try,
Has made me live to let me die. (17-18)

The body sums up why it hates the soul. With nothing else to torture, the soul decided to use its own body to do its worst: bring it to life. But hey, isn't that better than never existing at all? Not according to the body, it isn't. Its conclusion is that there's no point to living if you're only going to die.

Quote #3

A body that could never rest,
Since this ill spirit it possest. (19-20)

One of the worst things about being alive is always being on the move. Take a chill pill already! Remember from stanza one that the soul was venting about being confined and imprisoned: it wanted more movement. Here the body is complaining about exactly the opposite.