Writers of the Romantic movement often expressed a spontaneous outpouring of feeling through symbols and images related to nature. In “Mutability,” Percy Shelley was no exception to other romantic writers; he used these impulses of powerful feeling to express the inevitable change that everything in the universe undergoes. Ironically, Shelley claims that the only thing that will remain the same forever is mutability itself. While Shelley asserts that everything changes, he focuses on the mutability of the human species and its individuals. To illustrate humans as mutable, Shelley uses poetic elements such as imagery and specified diction. Therefore, “Mutability” ironically shows that the universe, especially humanity, changes while mutability itself remains the same. In "Mutability", Shelley uses imagery such as clouds and lyres to convey that humanity is constantly changing. In the first stanza, Shelley metaphorically connects humans to clouds in an attempt to express a powerful sense of mutability: “We are like clouds that veil the midnight moon; / With what agitation they run, shine and quiver, / Striating the darkness radiantly! --- yet soon / The night closes in and they are lost forever:” (Shelley, 1734). Clouds reflect moonlight; they also move quickly and glow with this reflected light eliminating total darkness. Likewise, the text suggests that humans are ephemeral and that all their actions are eventually forgotten; in comparison, the sun rises and the day erases all traces of darkness and nocturnal clouds. The example of the midnight moon can also be inferred that it is a cyclically changing entity, as the appearance of the moon changes every day. As such, night...... middle of paper...... resists change in a way that nothing else can. The text suggests that the poem places mutability and God on a similar level; since Shelley was an atheist, he did not have the supreme power to observe, but the idea of ​​mutability replaces God in fulfilling such a role. Thus, Shelley's powerful word choice and capitalization help express underlying thoughts about mutability and its context in his biography and the Romantic movement. The natural imagery and strong specified diction present in “Mutability” work in service of the expression of humans and human nature. as protean. Shelley uses imagery to metaphorically compare humans to clouds and lyres that undergo changes. His intention, however, is to convey the rationale for mutability specifically to humans. Shelley's diction in relation to his biography and the Romantic period also illustrates underlying thoughts on mutability..