The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (ed. Hutchinson, 1914)/Mutability (2)

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

For works with similar titles, see Mutability.

MUTABILITY

[Published by Mrs. Shelley, Posthumous Poems, 1824. There is a fair draft amongst the Boscombe MSS.]

I
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? 5
Lightning that mocks the night,
Brief even as bright.

II
Virtue, how frail it is!
Friendship how^[1] rare!
Love, how it sells poor bliss 10
For proud despair?
But we, though soon they fall,^[2]
Survive their joy, and all
Which ours we call.

IIIWhilst skies are blue and bright, 15
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 20
Then wake to weep.

 

1. how Boscombe MS.; too edd. 1824, 1839.
2. though soon they fall] though soon we or so soon they cj. Rossetti.