This poem is a powerful portrait of Doomsday and all men will perish at the end of the world. I think the most interesting aspect of this poem is how human selfishness and pride seems to augment, if not encourage, the apocalyptic events. For example, The lines in which the only two men who survived the end of the world were enemies and were working on surviving together until they realized who the other man was and then perished because they could not work together is an example of man's disposition of selfishness, pride and hate contributing to the demise of all mankind.
The crowd was famish'd by degrees; but two
56Of an enormous city did survive,
57And they were enemies: they met beside
58The dying embers of an altar-place
59Where had been heap'd a mass of holy things
60 For an unholy usage; they rak'd up,
61And shivering scrap'd with their cold skeleton hands
62The feeble ashes, and their feeble breath
63Blew for a little life, and made a flame
64Which was a mockery; then they lifted up
65Their eyes as it grew lighter, and beheld
66Each other's aspects--saw, and shriek'd, and died--
67Even of their mutual hideousness they died,
68Unknowing who he was upon whose brow
69Famine had written Fiend.
The two men are able to create a flame together, which is an incredibly powerful moment in the poem because they do not yet realize that they are enemies, so they work together to build a flame, which symbolizes life and renewal. This reminded me of a phoenix rising out of the ashes of death in order to spread its wings and peruse a new life. However, once the light of the fire allows the two men to recognize each other as the enemy, they both give up on survival and lay down to die.
I believe that Byron is saying that mankind cannot live forever on this planet if they keep conducting themselves in war and hatred. The apocalypse will be brought on most likely by war and enemies trying to kill each other. Even the prayers that men utter in this poem are deemed as selfish by Byron, and no one in the entire poem is willing to help each other because they are too busy trying to save themselves. It is only in this brief moment in which two unidentified people are willing to work together to build a fire that disregards hatred and selfishness. Once the two men recognize each other and remember their own hatred, they perish with the rest of the world because they could not work together in love to try and rebuild the world.
I really like how you focus on the two unidentified people in "Darkness". I definitely agree that the poem is a portrait of destruction and selfishness, but I think Byron might also be saying something about the need for societal structure and institutions in mankind. Byron mentions right after the story of the two enemies that "the populous and the powerful -- was a lump", and earlier he tells of the kingdoms and huts being "burnt for beacons". These passages could just be descriptive additions to the anarchy and chaos in the poem, but I also think they illustrate how the world order's decline has brought about the decline of the Universe. Or maybe it's just the opposite haha. It does seem that society in the poem is one of the "Ships sailorless", though. Lastly, I find it interesting that he chose two individuals but did not do much to define their personalities - the world seems too far gone for that, I suppose. Anyway, I enjoyed your insight!
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