by C.H. Chavez

Created on: April 14, 2009

Poetry Analysis of Darkness by George Gordon Lord Byron

Darkness

By George Gordon Lord Byron

"The world was void,

the populous and the powerful was a lump,

seasonless, helpless, treeless, manless, lifeless

a lump of death a chaos of hard clay,

The rivers, lakes, and ocean all stood still,

and nothing stirred 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 were withered in the stagnant air,

and the clouds perish'd; Darkness had no need

of aid from them she was the universe.

This excerpt from George Gordon Lord Byron's poem "Darkness" appears on line 69 and continues through line 82. The title itself gives far more information to what the poem is going to mean. The title tells us that the world is now dark, an image that contains no light, therefore no life can flourish.

This being so, in line 69, "The world was void, the populous and the powerful was a lump, seasonless, helpless, treeless, manless, lifeless a lump of death a chaos of hard clay." It is the end of the world; the sun no longer exists because now the characters in the poem are "seasonless," "treeless," "lifeless." The sun is the main power source for life to flourish, it provides heat, so that we may never freeze, and energy so things can grow. "The world was void," tells the reader that the world is now nothing in the vast darkness. "The rivers, lakes, and ocean all stood still, and nothing stirred 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," having the rivers, lakes, and oceans stand still, gives the image that life also ceases to exist below the surface. Without the sun, the moon is dark as well and without the two, there are no tides.

Furthermore, the next image Byron gives from these lines shows more death and the increased feelings of helplessness and nothingness. "Ships sailorless lay rotting and their masts fell down they slept on the abyss," displays that even inanimate objects are decaying in the darkness. He personifies ships when he states "lay rotting on the sea" and "they slept on the abyss" Byron tells us through his wonderful descriptions that even the ships have sunk into more darkness in the depths of the ocean. "The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave; the moon their mistress were withered in the stagnant air," this image also shows that without the workings of sun and moon together, there are no tides; Byron also personifies tides by stating that they have graves. The moon, without the sun's reflection seems to have "withered" away.

Following this through, these images are extremely dark and morbid. They describe one of the many possibilities of what the world would be like at the end, cold, dark, lonely, nothing but death. And the last two lines, "and the clouds perish'd; Darkness had no need of aid from them she was the universe," the clouds are gone as well; the weather seems to have disappeared as well. Byron also personifies the clouds; in doing so, he makes the loss of the world greater because everything ceases to exist. Humans and animals are not the only ones that die at the end. The end of the world affects everyone and everything because we are all connected. "She was the universe," another personification. First of all, the universe is dark, without the sun all we see is the light coming from distant stars many light-years away. Secondly, it makes the image more powerful because it is the end of the world, but no one else will ever know it.

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