Mutability

Section ten.

Two poems, both entitled Mutability.

Mutability I eighteen sixteen.

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: 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 foe, 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! End of poem.

Mutability II eighteen twenty-one.

The flower that smiles to-day, To-morrow dies; all that we wish to stay, Tempts, and then flies.

Recording by Leonard Wilson.

Section ten, two poems, both entitled Mutability.

Mutability I, 1816.

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: 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 foe, 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! End of poem.

Mutability II, 1821.

The flower that smiles today, tomorrow dies; All that we wish to stay, tempts, and then flies.

Section ten.

Two poems, both entitled Mutability.

Mutability I eighteen sixteen.

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: 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 foe, 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! End of poem.

Mutability II eighteen twenty-one.

The flower that smiles to-day, To-morrow 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.

Section ten.

Two poems, both entitled Mutability.

Mutability I, 1816.

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: 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 foe, 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! End of poem.

Mutability II, 1821.

The flower that smiles to-day, To-morrow 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.

Recording by Leonard Wilson.

Section ten, two poems, both entitled Mutability.

Mutability I, 1816.

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: 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 foe, 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! End of poem.

Mutability II, 1821.

The flower that smiles today Tomorrow dies; All that we wish to stay Tempts, and then flies.

Section ten.

Two poems both entitled Mutability.

Mutability I .

Eighteen sixteen.

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: 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 foe, 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.

End of poem.

Mutability II, 1821.

Recording by Leonard Wilson.

Section ten, two poems, both entitled Mutability.

Mutability I eighteen sixteen.

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: 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 foe, 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! End of poem.

Mutability II eighteen twenty-one.

The flower that smiles to-day, To-morrow dies; All that we wish to stay Tempts, and then flies.