“Darkness” Summary

“Darkness” Themes

• 

  Human Greed and Selfishness

  • See where this theme is active in the poem.
• 

  Human Weakness and the Fragility of Civilization

  • See where this theme is active in the poem.

Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Darkness”

• Lines 1-5

  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;

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 6-9

  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:

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 10-15

  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;

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 16-21

  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.

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 22-26

  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;

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 27-32

  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:

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 32-37

  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.

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 38-41

  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;

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 42-46

  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,

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 47-54

  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.

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 55-64

  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;

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 64-69

  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.

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 69-72

  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.

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 73-77

  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—

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 78-81

  The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave,
  The moon, their mistress, had expired before;
  The winds were wither'd in the stagnant air,
  And the clouds perish'd;

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 81-82

  Darkness had no need
  Of aid from them—She was the Universe.

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

“Darkness” Symbols

• 

  Darkness

  • See where this symbol appears in the poem.
• 

  The Dog

  • See where this symbol appears in the poem.

“Darkness” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Imagery

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Personification

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Onomatopoeia

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Repetition

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Assonance

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

“Darkness” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Darkling
• Rayless, and pathless
• Passions
• Desolation
• Watchfires
• Consum'd
• Mountain-torch
• Aspect
• By fits
• Disquietude
• Pall
• Gnash'd
• Brutes
• Tremulous
• Vipers
• Twin'd
• Stingless
• Glut
• Sate
• Gorging
• Inglorious
• The pang of famine fed upon all entrails
• Meagre
• Assail'd
• Corse
• Famish'd
• Clung
• Lank
• Beheld
• Fiend
• Herbless
• Piecemeal
• Abyss
• Surge
• Stagnant

• • See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Darkness”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Darkness” Speaker

“Darkness” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Darkness”

More “Darkness” Resources

• External Resources

  • Byron the Bad Boy — Read an article about Byron's complex legacy as a major poet, an iconoclast, and a celebrity.

  • The Poem Aloud — Listen to a dramatic reading of the poem.

  • A Short Biography — Visit the Poetry Foundation to learn more about Byron's life and work.

  • The Year Without a Summer — Read about the dark, cold summer of 1816, which inspired not only this poem, but a number of major works of literature, including Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

  • Byron and Dogs — Learn about Byron's special fondness for dogs, and especially his beloved Lyon, who has a cameo in this poem as the lone representative of loyalty and hope!

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Lord Byron

  • On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year

  • Prometheus

  • She Walks in Beauty

  • So We'll Go No More a Roving

  • The Destruction of Sennacherib

  • When We Two Parted