tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3026106300442394708.post4973902431881670141..comments2023-06-06T17:38:36.907+02:00Comments on Explosions In Our Mind!: y#25Furahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06690288063444125886noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3026106300442394708.post-3237389908801155802011-07-26T18:33:35.879+02:002011-07-26T18:33:35.879+02:00Darkness by Lord Byron
I had a dream, which was n...Darkness by Lord Byron<br /><br />I had a dream, which was not all a dream.<br />The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars<br />Did wander darkling in the eternal space,<br />Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth<br />Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;<br />Morn came and went--and came, and brought no day,<br />And men forgot their passions in the dread<br />Of this their desolation; and all hearts<br />Were chill'd into a selfish prayer for light:<br />And they did live by watchfires--and the thrones,<br />The palaces of crowned kings--the huts,<br />The habitations of all things which dwell,<br />Were burnt for beacons; cities were consum'd,<br />And men were gather'd round their blazing homes<br />To look once more into each other's face;<br />Happy were those who dwelt within the eye<br />Of the volcanos, and their mountain-torch:<br />A fearful hope was all the world contain'd;<br />Forests were set on fire--but hour by hour<br />They fell and faded--and the crackling trunks<br />Extinguish'd with a crash--and all was black.<br />The brows of men by the despairing light<br />Wore an unearthly aspect, as by fits<br />The flashes fell upon them; some lay down<br />And hid their eyes and wept; and some did rest<br />Their chins upon their clenched hands, and smil'd;<br />And others hurried to and fro, and fed<br />Their funeral piles with fuel, and look'd up<br />With mad disquietude on the dull sky,<br />The pall of a past world; and then again<br />With curses cast them down upon the dust,<br />And gnash'd their teeth and howl'd: the wild birds shriek'd<br />And, terrified, did flutter on the ground,<br />And flap their useless wings; the wildest brutes<br />Came tame and tremulous; and vipers crawl'd<br />And twin'd themselves among the multitude,<br />Hissing, but stingless--they were slain for food.<br />And War, which for a moment was no more,<br />Did glut himself again: a meal was bought<br />With blood, and each sate sullenly apart<br />Gorging himself in gloom: no love was left;<br />All earth was but one thought--and that was death<br />Immediate and inglorious; and the pang<br />Of famine fed upon all entrails--men<br />Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh;<br />The meagre by the meagre were devour'd,<br />Even dogs assail'd their masters, all save one,<br />And he was faithful to a corse, and kept<br />The birds and beasts and famish'd men at bay,<br />Till hunger clung them, or the dropping dead<br />Lur'd their lank jaws; himself sought out no food,<br />But with a piteous and perpetual moan,<br />And a quick desolate cry, licking the hand<br />Which answer'd not with a caress--he died.<br />The crowd was famish'd by degrees; but two<br />Of an enormous city did survive,<br />And they were enemies: they met beside<br />The dying embers of an altar-place<br />Where had been heap'd a mass of holy things<br />For an unholy usage; they rak'd up,<br />And shivering scrap'd with their cold skeleton hands<br />The feeble ashes, and their feeble breath<br />Blew for a little life, and made a flame<br />Which was a mockery; then they lifted up<br />Their eyes as it grew lighter, and beheld<br />Each other's aspects--saw, and shriek'd, and died--<br />Even of their mutual hideousness they died,<br />Unknowing who he was upon whose brow<br />Famine had written Fiend. The world was void,<br />The populous and the powerful was a lump,<br />Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless--<br />A lump of death--a chaos of hard clay.<br />The rivers, lakes and ocean all stood still,<br />And nothing stirr'd within their silent depths;<br />Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea,<br />And their masts fell down piecemeal: as they dropp'd<br />They slept on the abyss without a surge--<br />The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave,<br />The moon, their mistress, had expir'd before;<br />The winds were wither'd in the stagnant air,<br />And the clouds perish'd; Darkness had no need<br />Of aid from them--She was the Universe.yuppibqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03812693582974359780noreply@blogger.com