darkness

"i had a dream, which was not all a dream.
the bright sun was extinguish'd, 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 chill'd 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 consum'd,
and men were gather'd round their blazing homes
to look once more into each other's face;
happy were those who dwelt within the eye
of the volcanos, and their mountain-torch:
a fearful hope was all the world contain'd;
forests were set on fire - but hour by hour
they fell and faded - and the crackling trunks
extinguish'd 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 smil'd;
and others hurried to and fro, and fed
their funeral piles with fuel, and look'd 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 gnash'd their teeth and howl'd: the wild birds shriek'd
and, terrified, did flutter on the ground,
and flap their useless wings; the wildest brutes
came tame and tremulous; and vipers crawl'd
and twin'd 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 devour'd,
even dogs assail'd their masters, all save one,
and he was faithful to a corse, and kept
the birds and beasts and famish'd men at bay,
till hunger clung them, or the dropping dead
lur'd their lank jaws; himself sought out no food,
but with a piteous and perpetual moan,
and a quick desolate cry, licking the hand
which answer'd not with a caress - he died.
the crowd was famish'd 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 heap'd a mass of holy things
for an unholy usage; they rak'd up,
and shivering scrap'd 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 shriek'd, 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 stirr'd 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, had expir'd before;
the winds were wither'd in the stagnant air,
and the clouds perish'd; darkness had no need
of aid from them - she was the universe."

- lord byron

because, its perfect.