untrimm'd from a poem

Question

I have two questions about the word "untrimm'd" from the following Shakespeare's verses:
"And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimm'd;"

I would guess untrimm'd is the equivalnt of untrimmed. Maybe in Shakespeare's time, they wrote all past participle in 'd form, am I right?
Also, if nature's course is changing, how come it is described as untrimmed?
Thanks in advance.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

It is written with the apostrophe to ensure that the reader reads it as two syllables-- /un 'trimd/-- to maintain the meter. In King John, Shakspere writes:

O Lewis, stand fast! the devil tempts thee here,
In likeness of a new untrimmed bride.

Here, untrimmed is intended to be read as three syllables: /un 'trim ed/. However, I do not think that this way of indicating syllabification is consistent throughout his works.

Nature could be untrimmed because it is unruly, but I think that this is rather a nautical term: untrimmed sails on a ship are those which have not been adjusted to catch the wind properly. The course or progress of nature is erratic, uncontrolled.

Hunk · Answer

Thanks very, very much.

In the peom, he also mentioned eternality :

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May;
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
-- William Shakespeare --

My first question, grow'st is the contraction of what ?

I hope I'm not too annoying asking so many questions. It's only the last three lines I need help now.

Mister Micawber · Answer

There's no such thing as too many questions, Hunk-- that is what this website exists for.

Grow'st = growest, just as wand'rest = wanderest in the previous line of the poem-- the -(e)st suffix is the second person singular verb form in Early Modern English.

Hunk · Answer

Did people in Shakespeare's time use 'thy', 'thou' and 'thee'  in stead of  'you'  in their conversations? I mean, did  the word  'you'  even exist then?

Mister Micawber · Answer

Well, Shakspere certainly uses you as much as he uses thy, thou and thee-- and thine, and ye. I am not a language historian, but I suppose it was a gradual changeover.

Here's some of what the Online Etymology Dictionary has to say about you:

O.E. eow, dat. and acc. pl. of þu (see http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=thou), objective case of ge, "ye" (see http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=ye), from W.Gmc. *iuwiz (cf. O.N. yor, O.S. iu, O.Fris. iuwe, M.Du., Du. u, O.H.G. iu, iuwih, Ger. euch), from PIE *ju. Pronunciation of you and the nom. form ye gradually merged from 14c.; the distinction between them passed out of general usage by 1600. Widespread use of Fr. in England after 12c. gave Eng. you the same association as Fr vous, and it began to drive out sing. nom. thou, originally as a sign of respect (similar to the "royal we") when addressing superiors, then equals and strangers, and ultimately (by c.1575) becoming the general form of address .

If you go to that site, you can research the th- pronouns also, I think.

Hunk · Answer

Mister Micawber,

Thank you for your help and patience.

Could you also explain what THIS in the last line of the poem refers to?

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May;
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
-- William Shakespeare --

Mister Micawber · Answer

This is the sonnet itself that Shaksper is writing, Hunk.

Hunk · Answer

I try to rearrange the last four lines, so they may be easier to understand:

When thou grow'st in eternal lines to time
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long thisnlives, and this gives life to thee, Death shall not brag thou wand'rest in his shade.

Sorry I ruined the sonnet for you, but... I think these four lines together is a complete thought.

Could you please rewrite "when grow in eternal lines to time"? I don't know what that means.

This is definitely my last question on this poem for you.

Mister Micawber · Answer

Re-arranging the lines does not help, Hunk.

When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st = when you bloom/become immortal through the ageless lines of my poetry.

Hunk · Answer

:-D It was very generous of you to share your knowledge of this sonnet with me; I'm gratified to say I'm able to enjoy it more than before. Thank you very much, Mister Micawber.

untrimm'd from a poem

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