Mutability
We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon;How restlessly they speed, and gleam, and quiver,Streaking the darkness radiantly!--yet soonNight closes round, and they are lost for ever:
Or like forgotten lyres, whose dissonant stringsGive various response to each varying blast,To whose frail frame no second motion bringsOne mood or modulation like the last.
We rest.--A dream has power to poison sleep;We rise.--One wandering thought pollutes the day;We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep;Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away:
It is the same!--For, be it joy or sorrow,The path of its departure still is free:Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow;Nought may endure but Mutability.
NOTES:may 1816; can Lodore, chapter 49, 1835 (Mrs. Shelley).Nought may endure but 1816;Nor aught endure save Lodore, chapter 49, 1835 (Mrs. Shelley).
Words in this poem
- radiantly adv.
- In a radiant manner; with glittering splendor.
- dissonant a.
- Sounding harshly; discordant; unharmonious. [L. dissonans, -antis, p. pr. of dissonare to disagree in sound, be discordant; dis- + sonare to sound: cf. F. dissonant. See Sonant.]
- modulation n.
- The act of modulating, or the state of being modulated; as, the modulation of the voice. [L. modulatio: cf. F. modulation.]
- departure n.
- Division; separation; putting away. [From Depart.]
- mutability n.
- The quality of being mutable, or subject to change or alteration, either in form, state, or essential character; susceptibility of change; changeableness; inconstancy; variation. [L. mutabilitas: cf. F. mutabilité.]
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
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.html, id L16297.
Form and metre
Mutability is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The commonest rhyme scheme is ABAB, in 2 of the 5 stanzas; the rest vary or could not be confirmed. The metre is iambic pentameter, as Wikipedia: Mutability (poem) has it. 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.7 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 15% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 A-A- moonA · quiver · soonA · ever
- 2 ABAB stringsA · blastB · bringsA · lastB
- 3 ABAB sleepA · dayB · weepA · awayB
- 4 A-A- sorrowA · free · morrowA · mutability
- 5 -A-A notes · shelleyA · — · shelleyA
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon; | 10 | ·······/·· |
| How restlessly they speed, and gleam, and quiver, | 11 | ·/˘˘·····/˘ |
| Streaking the darkness radiantly!--yet soon | 11 | /˘·/˘/˘˘˘·· |
| Night closes round, and they are lost for ever: | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| Or like forgotten lyres, whose dissonant strings | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Give various response to each varying blast, | 10 | ·/˘˘/··/˘· |
| To whose frail frame no second motion brings | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| One mood or modulation like the last. | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| We rest.--A dream has power to poison sleep; | 10 | ·····/·/˘· |
| We rise.--One wandering thought pollutes the day; | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep; | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away: | 10 | ˘/····/·˘/ |
| It is the same!--For, be it joy or sorrow, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| The path of its departure still is free: | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow; | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| Nought may endure but Mutability. | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| NOTES: | 1 | · |
| may 1816; can Lodore, chapter 49, 1835 (Mrs. Shelley). | 10 | ····/˘/˘/˘ |
| Nought may endure but 1816; | 5 | ··˘/· |
| Nor aught endure save Lodore, chapter 49, 1835 (Mrs. Shelley). | 13 | ··˘/···/˘/˘/˘ |
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.