Percy Bysshe Shelley
“We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon…”
Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Mutability” (1816)
Documented source
Attribution
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Source
Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Mutability” (1816)
In full
“We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon…”
Status
Public domain in the United States
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About this line
“Mutability” turns on one question: if nothing holds still, what are we? Shelley’s answer isn’t grief — it’s recognition. We are the clouds, bright and restless and gone by morning. Mary Shelley loved the poem enough to quote it in Frankenstein.
Why we carry this line
Because I love the midnight sky and the moon and the planets and the stars.
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