Mutability
The flower that smiles to-dayTo-morrow dies;All that we wish to stayTempts and then flies.What is this world's delight?Lightning that mocks the night,Brief even as bright.
Virtue, how frail it is!Friendship how rare!Love, how it sells poor blissFor proud despair!But we, though soon they fall,Survive their joy, and allWhich ours we call.
Whilst skies are blue and bright,Whilst flowers are gay,Whilst eyes that change ere nightMake glad the day;Whilst yet the calm hours creep,Dream thou--and from thy sleepThen wake to weep.
About this text
Mutability is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Volume 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #4798; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mutability, in The Complete Poetical Works, Volume II (1816–1819), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4798, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shelley-later-poems/mutability-2.html, id L16443.
Form and metre
Mutability is 21 lines in 3 stanzas of 7 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCCC, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.4 syllables. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABCCC dayA · diesB · stayA · fliesB · delightC · nightC · brightC
- 2 -A-ABBB is · rareA · bliss · despairA · fallB · allB · callB
- 3 ABABCCC brightA · gayB · nightA · dayB · creepC · sleepC · weepC
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The flower that smiles to-day | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| To-morrow dies; | 4 | ·/˘· |
| All that we wish to stay | 6 | ······ |
| Tempts and then flies. | 4 | ···· |
| What is this world's delight? | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Lightning that mocks the night, | 6 | /˘···· |
| Brief even as bright. | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| Virtue, how frail it is! | 6 | /˘···· |
| Friendship how rare! | 4 | /˘·· |
| Love, how it sells poor bliss | 6 | ······ |
| For proud despair! | 4 | ··˘/ |
| But we, though soon they fall, | 6 | ······ |
| Survive their joy, and all | 6 | ˘/···· |
| Which ours we call. | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| Whilst skies are blue and bright, | 6 | ······ |
| Whilst flowers are gay, | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| Whilst eyes that change ere night | 6 | ······ |
| Make glad the day; | 4 | ···· |
| Whilst yet the calm hours creep, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Dream thou--and from thy sleep | 6 | ······ |
| Then wake to weep. | 4 | ···· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.