Question:
W.Shakespeare question???
XIV. "To me, fair Friend, you never can be old"
TO me, fair Friend, you never can be old,
For as you were when first your eye I eyed
Such seems your beauty still. Three winters' cold
Have from the forests shook three summers' pride;
Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turn'd
In process of the seasons have I seen,
Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burn'd,
Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green.
Ah! yet doth beauty, like a dial-hand,
Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived;
So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,
Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived:
For fear of which, hear this, thou age unbred,—
Ere you were born, was beauty's summer dead.
Okay, the last two lines, what do they mean?
and what is meant by this poem. I am not native speaking english, can you help?
Additional Details3 months ago
Ah! yet doth beauty, like a dial-hand,
Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived;
So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,
Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived:
a little help with this too???
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
The narrator is looking upon someone he loves and realizing that although time's motion is imperceptible, time is still passing and so is the beauty of youth. You can see the passing of three years in the imagery of seasons.
All this while, the poet claims his eyes have been deceived.
If the beauty of his friend is fading, he still holds the image of that beauty in his mind's eye.
In the last two lines he is speaking to those generations to come. "Unbred" has two meanings: not yet born and the common archaic meaning of being uncouth or ill-bred. Both meanings are working here. The poet says that because the beauty of his friend is passing away, the generations that come after will never know beauty in its full glory.