Essay from the year 2014 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 65.0, University of Sheffield, course: English Literature, language: English, abstract: Mutability employs traditional conventions of the Lyric poem as it is brief and discontinuous, emphasising sound and pictorial imagery rather than narrative, in order to present the concept of life as ephemeral. Shelley is a poet shaped by the sense that there are narrow limits to what human beings can know with certainty. Mutability reflects this notion as Shelley undermines human importance within a world in which nothing is constant. In his A Defence of Poetry he argues that for man to be greatly goodthe pains and pleasures of his species must become his own and therefore this essay shall consider the way Shelley uses Mutability in order to educate readers on humanities fleeting and irrelevant nature.