In the end, nothing matters. Only your memory of the past, and your awareness, of the present, can help create your temporary light. In George Gordon Byron’s poem, "Darkness," the end of the world plagues the mind of the people. To live with the idea of your inevitable death is to be "cursed with knowledge." The end of the world will test the morality of the pеople. It will lead to selfish acts bеing committed and a display of weakness.

Those who cannot accept their fate go to great efforts to change them, while others embrace their imminent demise. The line “A fearful hope was all the world contained some laid down and hid their eyes and wept and some did rest” is an honest reaction from humans. On the other hand, some people refuse to wait for death to arrive. Byron depicts how quickly humans turn into savages. Rather than feeling sorry for their predicament, the selfishness is highlighted in bold. To an extent, humans have made their death beds, similar to how they do in horror films. The use of symbolism further demonstrates how humans think. When they “hurried to and fro, and fed Their funeral piles with fuel,” it’s no secret that humans are giving aid to self-destruction. When we think of funerals, we think of being dead. Byron gives humans animalistic characteristics and tendencies by them “[gnashing] their teeth” and howling. Byron’s detailing of the fires that were created through lighting up nature is the final blow to humanity. No compassion; no passion.

Compassion cannot exist in the same place as desperation. In a fight for survival and the preserving of the human race, humans leave all compassion at the door. Society is crumbling by the minute and soon is no more. A combination of freezing temperatures and no light causes humans to resort to creating fires. There are no exceptions to what humans were willing to burn, as they gave up all their wood. This desperation also leads to animals being eaten. Yet, no matter how much humans do to prevent the end of the world. Their desperation is meaningless. Humans do not break that easily, though, so they continue. They burned “thrones, The palaces of crowned kings-the huts.” This act of desperation depicts the absence of order in society. As hopeless as they were, they were content on having as much time left on Earth as they could preserve. Byron continues his imagery with people living “within the eye Of the volcanoes, and their mountain-torch,” all for heat.

The end of life is out of everyone’s control even God. Byron’s forgoing of rhymes mirrors the space that darkness inhabits. On Earth, the imagery of aftermath details how mortal humans are. Additionally, nature fell on its face, rendered permanently unconscious when “waves were dead,” “tides were in their grave,” “winds were withered,” and “clouds perish’d.” The horrifying sight was “a lump of death.” Byron suggests that people have given up on their God, as “two enemies met beside the dying embers of an altar-place.” Burning all that was holy shows their dying faith, and perhaps dying beliefs.

Our universe is the darkness that surrounds us. Byron utilizes the personification of the universe to give darkness a powerful presence. With the sun having been obliterated and the moon nowhere to be found and the stars “wander darkling in the eternal space, rayless, and pathless,” there is no longer a source of light. These objects in space acted as night lights for children who were afraid of the dark. Without them, darkness is in full control. There is no longer a distinction between day and night in a world that is “blind” and “blackening.” We are shown that the universe is desolate, and the Earth is bereft of hope.

A vision like Byron’s illustrates the ultimate truth light cannot drive out darkness nobody can do that. Men can pray to a God that won’t save them; they can kill each other over the warmth and light of fires. The animals of nature that roam peacefully can be sacrificed for human survival, but darkness is above all, and “She was the Universe.” The end of the world can be challenged or fought, but the apocalypse will charge forward. The light you will find will be short-lived.