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Mutability

(5) Tree Line

The first couple of lines in this poem are enough to send you spinning off into confusion-land. What is this "low to high," "high to low" business? What, exactly, does Wordsworth mean by this vague word "dissolution"? And what does it all have to do with music? A dictionary is quite helpful with this poem. Or better yet, a computer and your Shmoop-tionary. By comparison, the second half of the poem is pretty straightforward – frost and a falling tower, got it. And the theme of change and transience is so common in literature that we can use it as a handhold to help us through the poem.