Mutability Truth Quotes

Based on this quote, Wordsworth seems to believe in some kind of enduring, absolute standard in the universe, whether or not it’s "truth." The world isn’t just chaos and anarchy; there’s an order. The Greek philosopher Plato once described it as "the harmony of the spheres."

The idea of truth "failing" is a bit strange, but we’ll go with it. The quote states that truth has an "inner" and an "outer form." Sounds like the old philosophical distinction between essence and appearance (Plato again!). Appearances can change, but essence never does.

You could draw from this quote the somewhat radical idea that truth takes on different appearances at different times. You can’t rely on the standard of appearances as a measure of absolute truth.

With the image of the falling tower, Wordsworth asks us to maybe be a little more humble in our opinions. He pokes fun at the tower, image of war and military might, which "could not even" sustain a shout at the end of its life. Maybe the tower would also be a good symbol of our sense of certainty over what is true at any given point.

For the Romantics like Wordsworth, you could not understand anything without using your imagine as well as your reason. Since we cannot imagine time, we don’t really understand the truth of time either.