“Darkness” was one of several poems Byron wrote in an extraordinary burst of creativity during the summer of 1816. Ignored for a long time (Ian Jack’s 1952 chapter on Byron in the

does not mention it, and he even remarks that “Little need be said of Byron’s lyrics”, 52), it is now, in the wake of eco-criticism and concerns about climate catastrophe, regarded as one of his most important poems and is regularly anthologized. It follows the form of the “Conversation poems” launched by Coleridge in 1795—relatively brief meditations on some particular life experience. Like them it is written in blank verse, i.e., unrhymed iambic pentameter, with no deviation from the form though with much variation: for example, there is a remarkable…

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Citation: Forsyth, Neil. "Darkness". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 September 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=34205, accessed 21 November 2024.]