Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, MUTABILITY (1), by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY


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MUTABILITY (1), by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon
Last Line: Nought may endure but mutability.
Subject(s): Mutability


WE are as clouds that veil the midnight moon;
How restlessly they speed, and gleam, and quiver,
Streaking the darkness radiantly! -- yet soon
Night closes round, and they are lost forever:

Or like forgotten lyres whose dissonant strings
Give various response to each varying blast,
To whose frail frame no second motion brings
One 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.





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