Question

Read these lines from “Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare.

And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimm'd

The purpose of these lines is to

Answer 1

...assert that all beauty is transient. The lines say that every "fair" (beautiful thing) at some point loses its beauty—either by chance (accident, misfortune) or by nature's inevitable changes ("nature's changing course untrimm'd" = stripped of adornment). This claim sets up the poem's central move: because natural beauty fades, the speaker will preserve the beloved's beauty forever in verse.