Change is inevitable. Change is inevitable. Human kind is weak and whether men accept it or not, change occurs. Change is the only element of mankind that will never change. A person will not react the same way when given the same situation twice; nothing, not thoughts nor feelings will last–only change. “Mutability” by Percy Bysshe Shelley exudes the fact that people never stop changing because of the everyday circumstances they must go through in life. When a fragile human is thrown the same situation twice, even if it’s a natural, everyday one, that human will doubted react the same way or think the same thoughts.
Shelley says meaningfully, “We rest. —A dream has power to poison sleep. ” Every night we, as humans, go to sleep. However, a nightmarish reoccurring dream, for example, could make sleep an awful experience every single night and change you by creating a fear of resting. Then, when we wake, we start to consciously think. People could be cheery all day thinking about how wonderful life is, although they could also wonder what kinds of bacteria were on the door he or she just opened, what pollutants they are breathing in with every inhale, the kinds of natural disasters that could become them and destroy their life in an instant.
These thoughts create a fear to live, to be venturous; this changes a person. Shelley says metaphorically, “We rise. —One wandering thought pollutes the day. ” This goes to show that a person will not react the same way when given the same situation twice. Nothing in this world will last except change. We will all die sooner or later so our lives, bodies, worldly possessions will not last; people move around, meet new people, find new friends, so friends will not last; humans are always changing their minds, so thoughts, feelings, emotions; none of it will last.
The only element of a person that will last is their ability to change. In one stanza, Shelley compares men to lyres, musical instruments much like the harp. He says, “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,” He calls mankind weak and frail and exhibits how no second strum of the “lyres” will give the ame response, in other words, nothing of the weak man will endure but his ability to change his responses.
The last line of Shelley’s poem states, “Naught may endure but mutability. ” He is literally saying that nothing . . . nothing . . . will last, except change. In the poem “Mutability” by Percy Bysshe Shelley, he heavily emphasizes that people are weak and throughout all the situations life throws at them they will always change. Change is the only aspect of this world that is not changeable.
