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Sonnet—Mutation

1794 –

1878

They talk of short-lived pleasure—be it so—
Pain dies as quickly: stern, hard-featured pain
Expires, and lets her weary prisoner go.
The fiercest agonies have shortest reign;
And after dreams of horror, comes again
The welcome morning with its rays of peace.
Oblivion, softly wiping out the stain,
Makes the strong secret pangs of shame to cease:
Remorse is virtue’s root; its fair increase
Are fruits of innocence and blessedness:
Thus joy, o’erborne and bound, doth still release
His young limbs from the chains that round him press.
Weep not that the world changes—did it keep
A stable changeless state, ’twere cause indeed to weep.

This poem is in the public domain.

William Cullen Bryant, author of "Thanatopsis," was born in Cummington, Massachusetts on November 3, 1794. He is considered an American nature poet and journalist, who wrote poems, essays, and articles that championed the rights of workers and immigrants.

About William Cullen Bryant

Themes

Public Domain

Form

Sonnet

About this Poem

“Sonnet—Mutation” first appeared in The United States Literary Gazette in 1824. It was later published in Bryant’s book Poems (Russell, Odiorne, and Metcalf, 1834).

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More by this poet

The Battle-Field

Once this soft turf, this rivulet’s sands,
Were trampled by a hurrying crowd,
And fiery hearts and armed hands
Encountered in the battle cloud.

Ah! I never shall the land forget
How gushed the life-blood of her brave—
Gushed, warm with hope and courage yet,

William Cullen Bryant

1878

Summer Wind

It is a sultry day; the sun has drunk
The dew that lay upon the morning grass;
There is no rustling in the lofty elm
That canopies my dwelling, and its shade
Scarce cools me. All is silent, save the faint
And interrupted murmur of the bee,
Settling on the sick flowers, and then again

William Cullen Bryant

1878

Upon the Mountain’s Distant Head

Upon the mountain’s distant head,
   With trackless snows for ever white,
Where all is still, and cold, and dead,
   Late shines the day’s departing light.

But far below those icy rocks,
   The vales, in summer bloom arrayed,
Woods full of birds, and fields of flocks,
   Are dim with mist and dark with shade.

’Tis thus, from warm and kindly hearts,
   And eyes where generous meanings burn,
Earliest the light of life departs,
   But lingers with the cold and stern.

William Cullen Bryant

1862

Poems

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Sonnet—Mutation

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