Andrew Marvell, in this excerpt from his poem A Dialogue between the Soul and the Body, illustrates the struggle of an eternal soul entrapped in mortal flesh. Marvell describes this soul as being overwhelmed by the physical senses, distracted by the otiose thoughts of a carnal mind, and led astray by a deceitful heart.
Here blinded with an eye; and there
Deaf with the drumming of an ear;
A soul hung up, as ‘twere, in chains
Of nerves and arteries, and veins;
Tortured, besides each other part,
In a vain head and a double heart.
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