One thing that struck me about Hood's apocalyptic fantasy, "The Last Man," is that unlike Byron in "Darkness," Hood doesn't pick up on the idea of the end of the world as we know it--like death--as being the end of all social distinctions. In Byron's vision of an all-leveling universal darkness, "the thrones,/ The palaces of crowned kings--the huts, The habitations of all things which dwell,/ Were burnt for beacons. . . ." For Hood, though, the issue of class distinction and the desire for royalty and power are still present, as the last two survivors want to be king of the world and the narrator despises the poor beggar and makes a number of disparaging remarks of the beggar being lower class than he is. Hood, then, is showing a more sophisticated sense of class consciousness and human depravity. Wiping out the external signs of power and privilege does not remove the desire for them.
This is very interesting. Supposedly, when faced with the image of death, one ought to come to a Boethian realization/re-prioritization of values; reflecting philosophically on one's life, re-valuing piety and virtue and denouncing transient materiality.This is not the case in Hood's poem however, and I think you are right-the power and extent of the desire for material wealth is accentuated by Hood's exclusion of a Boethian moralization; but what does this ultimately say? that human beings value material wealth and privilege over virtue and pious living? that we are incapable of philosophical reflection even in the face to death?
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