"Mutability" is a poem by

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was an English writer who is considered one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame durin ...

which appeared in the 1816 collection '' Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude: And Other Poems''. Half of the poem is quoted in his wife

Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ( , ; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel ''Frankenstein, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an History of science fiction# ...

's novel '' Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818) although his authorship is not acknowledged, while the 1816 poem by

Leigh Hunt James Henry Leigh Hunt (19 October 178428 August 1859), best known as Leigh Hunt, was an English critic, essayist and poet. Hunt co-founded '' The Examiner'', a leading intellectual journal expounding radical principles. He was the centre ...

is acknowledged with the name of the author given. Only Percy Bysshe Shelley is not acknowledged as an author. There is also a prose version or further elaboration of the same themes of the poem in ''Frankenstein'' that immediately precedes the quotation of the poem. The eight lines from "Mutability" which are quoted in ''Frankenstein'' occur in Chapter 10 when Victor Frankenstein climbs

Glacier Montanvert Glacier Montanvert was the common name in the 18th century for a portion of the Alps glacier, now known as Mer de Glace, on the northern slopes of the Mont Blanc massif. Alternative spellings of Montanvert include Montainvert and Montvers. The Gla ...

in the

Swiss Alps The Alps, Alpine region of Switzerland, conventionally referred to as the Swiss Alps, represents a major natural feature of the country and is, along with the Swiss Plateau and the Swiss portion of the Jura Mountains, one of its three main Physica ...

and encounters the Creature. Frankenstein recites: "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." The monster also quotes a line from the poem in Chapter 15 of ''Frankenstein'', saying: "'The path of my departure was free;' and there was none to lament my annihilation."

Mutability (1816)

The poem first appeared in the 1816 collection ''Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude: And Other Poems'', published by Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy in London: 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!

Themes

The poem consists of four quatrains in abab iambic pentameter. A series of symbols, clouds, wind harps, describe the permanence in impermanence. The themes of transformation and metamorphosis and the transitory and ephemeral nature of human life and the works of mankind were also addressed in "

Ozymandias "Ozymandias" ( ) is a sonnet written by the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. It was first published in the 11 January 1818 issue of '' The Examiner'' of London. The poem was included the following year in Shelley's collection '' Ros ...

" (1818) and " The Cloud" (1820). 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 Yoke lutes, commonly called lyres, are a class of string instruments, subfamily of lutes, indicated with the codes 321.21 and 321.22 in the Hornbostel–Sachs classification. Description Yoke lutes are defined as instruments with one or more ...

that, discarded, have become like an

Aeolian harp An Aeolian harp (also wind harp) is a musical instrument that is played by the wind. Named after Aeolus, the ancient Greek god of the wind, the traditional Aeolian harp is essentially a wooden box including a sounding board, with strings stretche ...

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. There is also a prose version of the themes of the poem also in Chapter 10 of ''Frankenstein'' before the appearance of the poem: "Alas! Why does man boast of sensibilities superior to those apparent in the brute; it only renders them more necessary beings. If our impulses were confined to hunger, thirst, and desire, we might be nearly free; but now we are moved by every wind that blows and a chance word or scene that that word may convey to us." The prose version enunciates the identical themes of the poem, that man cannot control his thoughts because man has a subconscious that he cannot completely control. James Bieri described the poem: "The ''Alastor'' theme of loss is continued in 'Mutability,' with its lovely initial lines, 'We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon; / How restlessly they speed, and gleam, and quiver.'" The theme of change and transformation was also the subject of the 1820 poem "The Cloud" published as part of the ''Prometheus Unbound'' collection.

Second poem (1821-1822)

An 1821-1822 poem by Shelley is also sometimes published under the title "Mutability".''Norton Anthology of Poetry''. Fifth Edition (2004). "Mutability", page 864.
/ref> It is also published with its first line as title. :::1 The flower that smiles today ::Tomorrow dies; All that we wish to stay, ::Tempts and then flies. What is this world's delight? Lightning that mocks the night, :Brief even as bright. :::2 Virtue, how frail it is! ::Friendship how rare! Love, how it sells poor bliss ::For proud despair! But we, though soon they fall, Survive their joy and all :Which ours we call. :::3 Whilst skies are blue and bright, ::Whilst flowers are gay, Whilst eyes that change ere night ::Make glad the day, Whilst yet the calm hours creep, Dream thou – and from thy sleep :Then wake to weep.

Sources

*Edmund Blunden, ''Shelley: A Life Story'', Viking Press, 1947. *James Bieri, ''Percy Bysshe Shelley: A Biography'', Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008, . *Altick, Richard D., ''The English Common Reader''. Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 1998. *Cameron, Kenneth Neill. ''The Young Shelley: Genesis of a Radical''. First Collier Books ed. New York: Collier Books, 1962, cop. 1950. 480 p. *Holmes, Richard. ''Shelley: The Pursuit''. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1975.

References

External links

Online version of the 1816 poem read by Billy Collins on The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor, August 4, 2013.Online version of the 1824 poem on The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor, March 31, 2001.LibriVox audio-recording of "Mutability" by Percy Bysshe Shelley.Composer Zach Heyde set the 1816 poem to music in a 2012 eponymous choral work. https://zachheyde.bandcamp.com/track/mutability
{{Percy Bysshe Shelley Poetry by Percy Bysshe Shelley 1816 poems Romantic poems