- I had a dream, which was not 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 things which dwell,
- Were burnt for beacons; cities were consum'd,
- 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 contain'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 smil'd;
- 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 wildest brutes
- Came tame and tremulous; and vipers crawl'd
- And twin'd themselves among the multitude,
- Hissing, but stingless--they were slain for food.
- And War, which for a moment was no more,
- Did glut himself again: a meal was bought
- With blood, and each sate sullenly apart
- Gorging 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 devour'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
- Lur'd 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 rak'd up,
- And shivering scrap'd 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
- They slept on the abyss without a surge--
- The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave,
- The moon, their mistress, had expir'd before;
- The winds were wither'd in the stagnant air,
- And the clouds perish'd; Darkness had no need
- Of aid from them--She was the Universe.
Nota: "Darkness" is reprinted from Works. George Gordon Byron. London: John Murray, 1832. Fonte: PoetryArchive |
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