Romanticism In Lord Byron's 'Darkness'

Lord Byron's poem “Darkness” was published in 1816, a short time after having left England. By most of the critics, the poem has been considered to be a manner to overcome depression. However, his work might not be only a reflection of his feelings when the poem was written but also a great example of how different the vision of the world of the second generation of romantic poets -also known as the Younger Romantics- was in comparison with the first generation. By analysing this poem, numerous romantic features may be found. Nevertheless, what differentiates this poem from other poets from the same literary movement's works? This will be the main purpose of this paper: To analyse the poem in order to identify the main characteristics of Romanticism

In “Darkness”a poetic voice (in 3rd person singular) starts narrating the poem. In the first line, this poetic voice starts by claiming “I had a dream, which was not all a dream.”(line 1 of the poem “Darkness”), which indicates that the poem which is going to be narrated is part of an ensonation, but also is partly true since the poetic voice seems to say that is not completely sure about that what had happened had been only a dream. Hence, as the narrator keeps telling its dream, the degratation

All the poem is a single stanza though this stanza might be divided into three different parts: The first part goes from the first line “I had a dream, which was not all a dream” to “Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air” (line 5 of the poem “Darkness”) and narrates the beginning of Earth's extintion. The second part is mainly focused on the process of 'dehumanisation' of the people and the death and disparition of the human race from the Planet's surface. Besides, this part of the poem could be divided into two sections, going the first one from “Morn came and went -and came, and brought no day,” (line 6 of “Darkness”) to “Extinguish'd with a crash- and all was black.” (line 21 of “Darkness”) and the second one from “The brows of men by the despairing light” (line 22 of “Darkness”) to “Hissing, but stingless -they were slain for food.” (line 37 of “Darkness”). The third part of the poem portrays the complete destruction of the world, the victory of Darkness and the ending of everything and goes from “And War, which for a moment was no more” (line 38 of “Darkness”) until the end of the poem. By using this structure, Byron pretended to create a sensation of time passing away, from slow to fast. The poem starts slowly, explaining the destruction of the universe “The brught sun was estinguish'd, and the stars/Did wander darkling in the eternal space” (lines 2 and 3 of “Darkness”) and goes