DARKNESS
DARKNESS (Byron-1816)
I HAD a dream, which was not at all a
dream.
The bright sun was extinguish'd, and
the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal
space,
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
Swung blind and blackening in the
moonless air;
Morn came and went--and came, and
brought no day,
And men forgot their passions in the
dread
Of this their desolation; and all hearts
Were chill'd into a selfish prayer for
light;
And they did live by watchfires--and
the thrones,
The palaces of crowned kings--the huts,
The habitations of all thing which
dwell,
Were burnt for beacons; cities were consumed,
And men were gather'd round their
blazing homes
To look once more into each other's
face;
Happy were those who dwelt within the
eye
Of the volcanos, and their mountain-
torch;
A fearful hope was all the world con-
tain'd;
Forests were set on fire--but hour by
hour
They fell and faded--and the crackling
trunks
Extinguish'd with a crash--and all was
black.
The brows of men by the despairing light
Wore an unearthly aspect, as by fits
The flashes fell upon them; some lay
down
And hid their eyes and wept; and some
did rest
Their chins upon their clenched hands,
and smiled;
And others hurried to and fro, and fed
Their funeral piles with fuel, and look'd
up
With mad disquietude on the dull sky,
The pall of a past world; and then again
With curses cast them down upon the
dust,
And gnash'd their teeth and howl'd; the
wild birds shriek'd
And, terrified, did flutter on the ground,
And flap their useless wings; the wild-
est brutes
Came tame and tremulous; and vipers
crawl'd
And twined themselves among the mul-
titude,
Hissing, but stingless--they were slain
for food!
And War, which for a moment was no more
more,
Did glust himself in gloom: no love was
left;
All earth was but one thought--and that
was death
Immediate and inglorious; and the pang
Of famine fed upon all entrails--men
Died, and their bones were tombless as
their flesh;
The meagre by the meagre were de-
vour'd,
Even dogs assail'd their masters, all save
one,
And he was faithful to a corse, and
kept
The birds and beasts and famish'd men
at bay,
Till hunger clung them, or the dropping
dead
Lured their lank jaws; himself sought
out no food,
But with a piteous and perpetual moan,
And a quick desolate cry, licking the
hand
Which answer'd not with a caress--he
died.
The crowd was famish'd by degrees; but
two
Of an enormous city did survive,
And they were enemies: they met beside
The dying embers of an altar-place
Where had been heap'd a mass of holy
things
For an unholy usage; they raked up,
And shivering scraped with their cold
skeleton hands
The feeble ashes, and their feeble breath
Blew for a little life, and made a flame
Which was a mockery; then they lifted
up
Their eyes as it grew lighter, and beheld
Each other's aspects--saw, and shriek'd
and died--
Even of their mutual hideousness they
died,
Unknowing who he was upon whose
brow
Famine had written Fiend. The world
was void,
The populous and the powerful was a
lump,
Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless,
lifeless,
A lump of death--a chaos of hard clay.
The rivers, lakes, and ocean all stood
still,
And nothing stirr'd within their silent
depths;
Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea,
And their masts fell down piecemeal:
as they dropp'd
Tey slept on the abyss without a
surge--
The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave,
The moon, their mistress, had expired before;
The winds wer wither'd in the stagnant
air,
And the clouds perish'd; Darkness had
no need
Of aid from them--She was the uni-
verse.
I HAD a dream, which was not at all a
dream.
The bright sun was extinguish'd, and
the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal
space,
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
Swung blind and blackening in the
moonless air;
Morn came and went--and came, and
brought no day,
And men forgot their passions in the
dread
Of this their desolation; and all hearts
Were chill'd into a selfish prayer for
light;
And they did live by watchfires--and
the thrones,
The palaces of crowned kings--the huts,
The habitations of all thing which
dwell,
Were burnt for beacons; cities were consumed,
And men were gather'd round their
blazing homes
To look once more into each other's
face;
Happy were those who dwelt within the
eye
Of the volcanos, and their mountain-
torch;
A fearful hope was all the world con-
tain'd;
Forests were set on fire--but hour by
hour
They fell and faded--and the crackling
trunks
Extinguish'd with a crash--and all was
black.
The brows of men by the despairing light
Wore an unearthly aspect, as by fits
The flashes fell upon them; some lay
down
And hid their eyes and wept; and some
did rest
Their chins upon their clenched hands,
and smiled;
And others hurried to and fro, and fed
Their funeral piles with fuel, and look'd
up
With mad disquietude on the dull sky,
The pall of a past world; and then again
With curses cast them down upon the
dust,
And gnash'd their teeth and howl'd; the
wild birds shriek'd
And, terrified, did flutter on the ground,
And flap their useless wings; the wild-
est brutes
Came tame and tremulous; and vipers
crawl'd
And twined themselves among the mul-
titude,
Hissing, but stingless--they were slain
for food!
And War, which for a moment was no more
more,
Did glust himself in gloom: no love was
left;
All earth was but one thought--and that
was death
Immediate and inglorious; and the pang
Of famine fed upon all entrails--men
Died, and their bones were tombless as
their flesh;
The meagre by the meagre were de-
vour'd,
Even dogs assail'd their masters, all save
one,
And he was faithful to a corse, and
kept
The birds and beasts and famish'd men
at bay,
Till hunger clung them, or the dropping
dead
Lured their lank jaws; himself sought
out no food,
But with a piteous and perpetual moan,
And a quick desolate cry, licking the
hand
Which answer'd not with a caress--he
died.
The crowd was famish'd by degrees; but
two
Of an enormous city did survive,
And they were enemies: they met beside
The dying embers of an altar-place
Where had been heap'd a mass of holy
things
For an unholy usage; they raked up,
And shivering scraped with their cold
skeleton hands
The feeble ashes, and their feeble breath
Blew for a little life, and made a flame
Which was a mockery; then they lifted
up
Their eyes as it grew lighter, and beheld
Each other's aspects--saw, and shriek'd
and died--
Even of their mutual hideousness they
died,
Unknowing who he was upon whose
brow
Famine had written Fiend. The world
was void,
The populous and the powerful was a
lump,
Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless,
lifeless,
A lump of death--a chaos of hard clay.
The rivers, lakes, and ocean all stood
still,
And nothing stirr'd within their silent
depths;
Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea,
And their masts fell down piecemeal:
as they dropp'd
Tey slept on the abyss without a
surge--
The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave,
The moon, their mistress, had expired before;
The winds wer wither'd in the stagnant
air,
And the clouds perish'd; Darkness had
no need
Of aid from them--She was the uni-
verse.