Darkness by Lord Byron  
  
I had a dream, which was not all a dream. 
The bright sun was extinguished, 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 chilled 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 consumed, 
And men were gathered round their blazing homes 
To look once more into each other's face; 
Happy were those which dwelt within the eye 
Of the volcanoes, and their mountain-torch; 
A fearful hope was all the world contained; 
Forests were set on fire -but hour by hour 
They fell and faded -and the crackling trunks 
Extinguished 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 smiled; 
And others hurried to and fro, and fed 
Their funeral piles with fuel, and looked 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 gnashed their teeth and howled; the wild birds shrieked, 
And, terrified, did flutter on the ground, 
And flap their useless wings; the wildest brutes 
Came tame and tremulous; and vipers crawled 
And twined 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 devoured, 
Even dogs assailed their masters, all save one, 
And he was faithful to a corse, and kept 
The birds and beasts and famished men at bay, 
Till hunger clung them, or the drooping dead 
Lured their lank jaws; himself sought out no food, 
But with a piteous and perpetual moan, 
And a quick desolate cry, licking the hand 
Which answered not with a caress -he died. 
The crowd was famished 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 heaped a mass of holy things 
For an unholy usage: they raked up, 
And shivering scraped 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 shrieked, 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 stirred within their silent depths; 
Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea, 
And their masts fell down piecemeal; as they dropped 
They slept on the abyss without a surge - 
The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave, 
The Moon, their mistress, had expired before; 
The winds were withered in the stagnant air, 
And the clouds perished! Darkness had no need 
Of aid from them -She was the Universe! 
  
  
Duga je, ali je meni jako lepa.