Darkness by Lord Byron

my analysis of ...

Darkness

by lord Byron(George Gordon Byron)

index

Poetic devices

literacy techniques

Start

lines 22-37

lines 6-21

lines 1-5

lines 55-74

lines 38-54

lines 75-82

end

my opinions and veiws

literacy technique

• Assonance
• "Came tame and tremulous; and vipers crawl'd"

• "enormous city did survive"
• Alitteration
• "Little life"
• "Curses cast"
• "Flashes fell"
• Consonance
• "Till hunger clung them, or the dropping dead"
• "Of aid from them—She was the Universe."
• Enjambment

And they were enemies: they met besideThe dying embers of an altar-placeWhere had been heap'd a mass of holy thingsFor an unholy usage; they rak'd up,

• Imagery
• Personification
• "She was the Universe."

Poetic devices

• Free verse

• Stanza

lines 1-5

• the 'dream'
• premonition/ prophacy
• hyper-realistic dream
• overarching theme
• dying stars
• suggests the end of the world
• armogeddon
• 'rayless, and pathless'
• a deeper meaning
• the cold disarray
• the icy earth
• the moonless air

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;

lines 6-21

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 darkness
• chilled hearts
• where do they lie
• beacons
• adaptation
• comunication
• equality
• a good outcome?
• a heavey cost
• clarity
• sacrifice

desolation - a state of complete emptiness or destruction.

lines 22-37

The brows of men by the despairing lightWore 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.

• three reactions
• desparate
• saddened
• agitation
• Lost hope
• Anthropomorphism
• crazed
• unbalance

disquietude - a state of uneasiness or anxiety. pall - a negitive feeling or mood

lines 38-54

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.

• returning chaos
• despiration
• food
• life
• death
• loyalty
• sybolism
• lasting hope

piteous - causing you to feel sadness and sympathy perpetual - continuing for ever in the same way desolate - A desolate place is empty and not attractive, with no people or nothing pleasant in it

lines 55-74

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;

• surviving
• famine
• enemies
• ungodly
• reality
• a mutual hideousness
• all death
• factory reset
• a void
• a purge
• is it equality

lines 75-82

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.

• the end
• no moon
• no tide
• no clouds
• no life

my opinions and veiws

i think that this poem serves as a warning against the growing inequality in Byron's time, which is still very apparent tody,and a prediction for what will happen to the planet if the human race does not change. Byron has imagined an apocalypse that is matched only by the brutality of an Old Testament God. The references to religious symbols and events throughout this poem draw a direct connection to a religious and moral ending to the world. This can be a proven mening as Lord Byron was known to be highly religious, as were most people of his time.

THANK YOU