Lord Byron's 'Darkness': Analysis and Interpretation

Darkness, a short poem Byron wrote in 1816, is a dream vision of the end of the universe. Byron creates a swift movement of Time through the use of blank verse, enjambment, and punctuation. The poems gloomy and depressing tone is directly related to the personal depression Byron suffered from during his first summer in Switzerland, after he left England for the last time. The contempt for man displayed in the poem occurs in many of Byrons works. Darkness is one of Byrons bitterest works, however, as man is reduced to a bestial state where no love, compassion, or heroic action exists.