Mutability by P.B.Shelley |figures of speech| literary devices| summary | line by line analysis

#mutability_pbshelley #pb_shelley_poems meter :    • Meter in Poetry | Iambic pentameter | TROC...   Crack Mathematics with Deepshikha:    / @crackmathematicswithdeepsh2581   Science made easy with Swarnshikha:    / @sciencemadeeasywithswarnshikha   Facebook page :https://m.facebook.com lol/Swarnshikha28/ Mutability ["We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon"] BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY Mutability has the general meaning of variability or frequent change, but when it comes to poetry its list of meanings and connotations grows longer. Poets use this word in relation to the idea of nothing lasting forever, such as death existing in nature and the rebirth of new life after death. It is important to keep these ideas in mind while reading this piece.                                            I. 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 for ever:—                                          II. 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.                                         III. 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:—                                        IV. 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. Word meanings: Gleam : a soft light that shines for a short time. Streak : to run fast. Radiantly : brightly shining. Lyre : a stringed instrument like a small U-shaped harp with strings fixed to a crossbar, used especially in ancient Greece. Dissonant : unsuitable or unusual in combination; clashing. Modulation : a change in the style, loudness, etc. of something. Woe : the problems that somebody has. Nought : Definition of naught  : nothingness, nonexistence. Endure : to continue. Cast away : throw away ; reject. "Mutability" is a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley which appeared in the 1816 collection Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude: And Other Poems. The poem consists of four quatrains in abab iambic pentameter. A series of symbols, clouds, wind harps, describe the permanence in impermanence.  The poetic form of “Mutability” is a lyric, a poem that is “brief and discontinuous, emphasizing sound and pictorial imagery rather than narrative or dramatic movement”. ‘Mutability’ is a four stanza poem that contemplates the nature of our world and its one enduring element, mutability. The rhyme scheme of this piece is ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH. The first two stanzas concern the bustle and hurry of life which only conceals its inherent transience. Human lives are as vaporous as clouds or untuned lyres that, discarded, have become like an Aeolian harp that is susceptible to every passing wind gust. The last two stanzas concern the theme of the lack of freedom. In sleep, the mind cannot control the unconscious which poisons sleep. Human life and actions are subject to uncontrollable internal or autonomic reactions and to external forces. The path of departure of sorrow or joy "still is free", that is, it is not under our control. The conclusion is that the only constant is change. Summary Shelley begins this piece by taking everyday elements of human life and comparing them to human nature itself. He speaks on the beauty of midnight clouds blocking the sun, how quickly they move through the sky and then are gone. Just as human life, and the joys we experience, are fleeting. He continues by speaking on the distinctive sound of the lyre and how one note is invariably different from the one that follows, no two will be exactly the same. This is compared to the fact that no two days in someone’s life will be identical. All experience is ever-changing. The second half of this poem speaks directly on human emotion and action, how these emotions may appear to be different, such as sorrow and joy, but in reality, they are all the same. Each way of living one’s life, whether through embracing or casting out woes, will end the same. The poem concludes by making the statement that nothing in the world lasts forever except mutability. The tone, mood, and point of view in Mutability are up for debate. While some find the speaker to be pessimistic about change, focusing on the way it interrupts what is good, others find the speaker optimistic, coming to terms with the forever changing state of the universe and finding the human ability at least to make sense of a world that changes.