Mutability




 * // Mutability //**

**//2) Evaluating the Poem//**
2.1) Title, Situation and Summary/plot 2.3) Speaker, Intention and Purpose 2.4) Setting 2.5) Form and structure 2.6) Rhyme/Rhythm 2.7) Sound devices, Symbolism and Imagery. 2.8) Themes and Conclusion 2.9) Activity Sheet

1) The Poem
From low to high doth dissolution climb, And sink from high to low, along a scale Of awful notes, whose concord shall not fail; A musical but melancholy chime, Which they can hear who meddle not with crime, 5 Nor avarice, nor over-anxious care. Truth fails not; but her outward forms that bear The longest date do melt like frosty rime, That in the morning whiten'd hill and plain And is no more; drop like the tower sublime 10 Of yesterday, which royally did wear His crown of weeds, but could not even sustain Some casual shout that broke the silent air, Or the unimaginable touch of Time.

//Word Definitions// Mutability - Capable of or subject to change or alteration Dissolution (line 1) - Decomposition into fragments or parts Concord (line 2) - Harmony or agreement of interests or feelings Melancholy (line 4) - Sadness or depression of the spirits M eddle (line 5) - To intrude into other people's affairs or business Avarice (line 6) - Immoderate desire for wealth Sublime (line 10) - Characterized by nobility

//Poem was shared by other romanticist poets.// "Mutability" (1816), a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley ("We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon…"). "Mutability" (1824), a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley ("The flower that smiles to-day…"). "Mutability" (1821), a poem by William Wordsworth.

2.1) Plot summary (a)
Mutability,” a traditional sonnet of fourteen lines in iambic pentameter, is William Wordsworth’s speculation on change and transformation. Something that is mutable is able to shift, alter, and adapt itself, and the poet places his reflections on the impermanence of forms side by side with the permanence of Truth.

This sonnet is a commentary on highs and lows, begins:

From low to high doth dissolution climb, And sink from high to low, along a scale Of awful notes, whose concord shall not fail; A musical but melancholy chime, Which they can hear who meddle not with crime, Nor avarice, nor over-anxious care.

In the rest of the poem Wordsworth reasons that Time catches up with anything, and eventually exposes the difference between the truth the and false that pretends to be the truth:

Truth fails not; but her outward forms that bear The longest date do melt like frosty rime, That ni the morning whitened hill and plain And is no more; drop like the tower sublime Of yesterday, which royally did wear His crown of weeds, but could not even sustain Some casual shout that broke the silent air, Or the unimaginable touch of Time.

2.1) Plot summary (b)
FROM low to high doth dissolution climb, And sink from high to low, along a scale Of awful notes, whose concord shall not fail; A musical but melancholy chime, Which they can hear who meddle not with crime, Nor avarice, nor over-anxious care. Those who are pure (who do not meddle in crime, who are not avaricious or who are not overly anxious with care),will hear a melancholy musical chime, of awful notes(i.e. truth). These notes will sink from high scales to low scales and will be harmonious (i.e. concord shall not fail Truth fails not; but her __outward forms__ that bear The longest date do melt like frosty rime,  That in the morning whitened hill and plain And is no more drop like the tower sublime  Of yesterday, which royally did wear His crown of weeds, but could not even sustain Some casual shout that broke the silent air, Or the unimaginable touch of Time.  The outward forms of truth enjoying longest periods of acceptance will also change like the frosty ice that whitened hills and plains in the mornings changing to nothing – further like the Yesterday’s sublime tower of strength (wearing its crown of weeds) changing to something that cannot even sustain a casual shout or sustain aging (unimaginable touch of time)

2.3) Speaker, Intention and Purpose
In 1812 Wordsworth published "Ecclestial Sketches", a sequence of over a hundred sonnets (one of which was "Mutability") prompted by the current issue of Catholic Emancipation. Its purpose, wrote Wordsworth, 'was, as much as possible, to confine my views to the introduction, progress and operation of the church in England, both previous and subsequent to the Reformation'. The following year he published a group of poems inspired by his recent trip to Europe, "Memorials of a Tour on the Continent, 1820, and, for the first time eparately, the "Description of the Scenery of the Lakes". But for the next ten years, Wordsworth wrote little, and published nothing new. (reference from the book: The British Library writers lives William Wordsworth written by Stephen Hebron)

2.6) Rhyme/Rythme
From low to high doth dissolution climb, A And sink from high to low, along a scale B  Of awful notes, whose concord shall not fail; B A musical but melancholy chime, C Which they can hear who meddle not with crime, C Nor avarice, nor over-anxious care. D Truth fails not; but her outward forms that bear D The longest date do melt like frosty rime, A That in the morning whiten'd hill and plain E And is no more; drop like the tower sublime A Of yesterday, which royally did wear D His crown of weeds, but could not even sustain E Some casual shout that broke the silent air, D Or the unimaginable touch of Time. A

ABBCCDDAEADEDA

2.7) Sound devices, Symbolism and Imagery.
Sound devices -

Symbolism-

Imagery-