Darkness (1816) / Lord Byron (1788-1824)

.I had a dream, which was not all a dream

Forests were set on firebut hour by hour

The bright sun was extinguished, and the stars

They fell and fadedand the crackling trunks

,Did wander darkling in the eternal space

.Extinguished with a crashand all was black

Rayless, and pathless, and the icy Earth

The brows of men by the despairing light

;Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air

Wore an unearthly aspect, as by fits

,Morn came and wentand came, and brought no day

The flashes fell upon them; some lay down

And men forgot their passions in the dread

And hid their eyes and wept; and some did rest

Of this their desolation; and all hearts

;Their chins upon their clenchd hands, and smiled

:Were chilled into a selfish prayer for light

And others hurried to and fro, and fed

,And they did live by watchfiresand the thrones

Their funeral piles with fuel, and looked up

,The palaces of crownd kingsthe huts

,With mad disquietude on the dull sky

,The habitations of all things which dwell

The pall of a past World; and then again

,Were burnt for beacons; cities were consumed

,With curses cast them down upon the dust

And men were gathered round their blazing homes

And gnashed their teeth and howled: the wild birds

;To look once more into each other's face

,shrieked

Happy were those who dwelt within the eye

,And, terrified, did flutter on the ground

:Of the volcanos, and their mountain-torch

And flap their useless wings; the wildest brutes

;A fearful hope was all the World contained

Came tame and tremulous; and vipers crawled

,And twined themselves among the multitude

And they were enemies: they met beside

:Hissing, but stinglessthey were slain for food

The dying embers of an altar-place

,And War, which for a moment was no more

Where had been heaped a mass of holy things

Did glut himself again:a meal was bought

,For an unholy usage; they raked up

With blood, and each sate sullenly apart

And shivering scraped with their cold skeleton hands

;Gorging himself in gloom: no Love was left

The feeble ashes, and their feeble breath

,All earth was but one thoughtand that was Death

Blew for a little life, and made a flame

Immediate and inglorious; and the pang

Which was a mockery; then they lifted up

Of famine fed upon all entrailsmen

Their eyes as it grew lighter, and beheld

;Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh

Each other's aspectssaw, and shrieked, and died

,The meagre by the meagre were devoured

,Even of their mutual hideousness they died

,Even dogs assailed their masters, all save one

Unknowing who he was upon whose brow

And he was faithful to a corse, and kept

,Famine had written Fiend. The World was void

,The birds and beasts and famished men at bay

,The populous and the powerful was a lump

Till hunger clung them, or the dropping dead

Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless

,Lured their lank jaws; himself sought out no food

.A lump of deatha chaos of hard clay

,But with a piteous and perpetual moan

,The rivers, lakes, and ocean all stood still

And a quick desolate cry, licking the hand

;And nothing stirred within their silent depths

.Which answered not with a caresshe died

,Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea

The crowd was famished by degrees; but two

And their masts fell down piecemeal: as they dropped

,Of an enormous city did survive

They slept on the abyss without a surge

,The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave

,The winds were withered in the stagnant air

;The Moon, their mistress, had expired before

And the clouds perished; Darkness had no need

.Of aid from themShe was the Universe