Classic and Contemporary Poetry
MUTABILITY (1), by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY 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. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...VARIUM ET MUTABILE by THOMAS WYATT ON MUTABILITY by HUGO VON HOFMANNSTHAL MUTABILITY by EVELYN HAZLETT HUNT MUTABILITY by RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES A DIRGE by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY ADONAIS; AN ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF JOHN KEATS by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY ALASTOR; OR, THE SPIRIT OF SOLITUDE by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY AUTUMN: A DIRGE by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY |
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