"Mutability" and "A Defence of Poetry" by Percy Bysshe Shelley (E2020)

A. Streaking the darkness radiantly!—yet soon
Night closes round, and they are lost for ever
B. We rest.—A dream has power to poison sleep;
We rise.—One wandering thought pollutes the day
C. We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep;
Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away
D. Man’s yesterday may ne’er be like his morrow;
Nought may endure but Mutability.

These and corresponding conditions of being are experienced principally by those of the most delicate sensibility and the most enlarged imagination; and the state of mind produced by them is at war with every base desire. The enthusiasm of virtue, love, patriotism, and friendship, is essentially linked with such emotions; and whilst they last, self appears as what it is, an atom to a universe.

Poets are not only subject to these experiences as spirits of the most refined organization, but they can colour all that they combine with the evanescent hues of this ethereal world; a word, a trait in the representation of a scene or a passion, will touch the enchanted chord, and reanimate, in those who have ever experienced these emotions, the sleeping, the cold, the buried image of the past.

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Which central idea about poets is expressed in this excerpt?

A. Poets are members of an elite organization designed to help those who have lost all sense of hope.
B. Poets are capable of effectively capturing and preserving moments of beauty and pleasure in life.
C. Poets are among the most intelligent of humans because they possess enlarged imaginations.
D. Poets are known for being enthusiastic, virtuous, and patriotic people who clearly express emotion.

Hence the fame of sculptors, painters, and musicians, although the intrinsic powers of the great masters of these arts may yield in no degree to that of those who have employed language as the hieroglyphic of their thoughts, has never equalled that of poets in the restricted sense of the term, as two performers of equal skill will produce unequal effects from a guitar and a harp. The fame of legislators and founders of religions, so long as their institutions last, alone seems to exceed that of poets in the restricted sense; but it can scarcely be a question, whether, if we deduct the celebrity which their flattery of the gross opinions of the vulgar usually conciliates, together with that which belonged to them in their higher character of poets, any excess will remain.

This excerpt suggests that poetry is____________
to other art forms.

A. Inferior
B. Superior
C. Equal
D. Simular

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.

What idea is conveyed through this comparison of humans to lyres?

A. Like a lyre with strings that need to be tuned, humans will inevitably find reasons to disagree about things.
B. Like a lyre with strings that always make new sounds, humans respond uniquely to different experiences.
C. Like a lyre that has a fragile structure, humans are too delicate to survive in a harsh and unforgiving universe.
D. Like a lyre that is capable of always playing new music, humans will be remembered for their intense creativity.

A poem is the very image of life expressed in its eternal truth. There is this difference between a story and a poem, that a story is a catalogue of detached facts, which have no other connexion than time, place, circumstance, cause and effect; the other is the creation of actions according to the unchangeable forms of human nature, as existing in the mind of the Creator, which is itself the image of all other minds.

Which statements best describe how “Mutability” reflects the idea in this excerpt? Check all that apply.

1. It is a poem about life and human nature.
2. It occurs at a particular time and place.
3. It uses images to express universal truths about life.
4. It contains a list of various facts that tell a story.
5. It provides examples of causes and effects in nature.

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.

What is the effect of using the words dissonant and various to describe the sounds made by the lyre, a musical instrument?

A. They emphasize differences.
B. They suggest disagreement.
C. They emphasize imagination.
D. They suggest a lack of control.

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

How does Shelley convey the idea that humans are constantly moving and changing?

A. by personifying the moon
B. by comparing humans to clouds
C. by personifying the night
D. by comparing humans to darkness

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.

What is emphasized by Shelley’s metaphorical statement that “the path of its departure still is free”?

A. No path is ever the same.
B. Time passes by very quickly.
C. Emotions are ever changing.
D. All people feel joy and sorrow.

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.

Which of Bruno’s lines best extends the message expressed in the final stanza?

A. We die.—And in death, at last, achieve everlasting peace.
B. We live.—Knowing that today’s sun may give way to tomorrow’s rain.
C. We endure.—Man’s soul is like the bedrock, eternal and unchanged.
D. We thrive.—Realizing that life provides the fertile soil for us to blossom in.

A poet participates in the eternal, the infinite, and the one; as far as relates to his conceptions, time and place and number are not.

In his poem “Mutability,” Shelley…

A. focuses on the beauty of nature rather than addressing time.
B. contradicts this idea by focusing on the inevitability of change.
C. explains the importance of music in the inspiration of humankind.
D. supports this idea with figurative language focused on timelessness.