Dark Holes Imperium [DHIMP]

u"I had a dream, which was not all a dream. <br>The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars <br>Did wander darkling in the eternal space, <br>Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth <br>Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air; <br>Morn came and went\u2014and came, and brought no day, <br>And men forgot their passions in the dread <br>Of this their desolation; and all hearts <br>Were chill'd into a selfish prayer for light: <br>And they did live by watchfires\u2014and the thrones, <br>The palaces of crowned kings\u2014the huts, <br>The habitations of all things which dwell, <br>Were burnt for beacons; cities were consum'd, <br>And men were gather'd round their blazing homes <br>To look once more into each other's face; <br>Happy were those who dwelt within the eye <br>Of the volcanos, and their mountain-torch: <br>A fearful hope was all the world contain'd; <br>Forests were set on fire\u2014but hour by hour <br>They fell and faded\u2014and the crackling trunks <br>Extinguish'd with a crash\u2014and all was black. <br>The brows of men by the despairing light <br>Wore an unearthly aspect, as by fits <br>The flashes fell upon them; some lay down <br>And hid their eyes and wept; and some did rest <br>Their chins upon their clenched hands, and smil'd; <br>And others hurried to and fro, and fed <br>Their funeral piles with fuel, and look'd up <br>With mad disquietude on the dull sky, <br>The pall of a past world; and then again <br>With curses cast them down upon the dust, <br>And gnash'd their teeth and howl'd: the wild birds shriek'd <br>And, terrified, did flutter on the ground, <br>And flap their useless wings; the wildest brutes <br>Came tame and tremulous; and vipers crawl'd <br>And twin'd themselves among the multitude, <br>Hissing, but stingless\u2014they were slain for food. <br>And War, which for a moment was no more, <br>Did glut himself again: a meal was bought <br>With blood, and each sate sullenly apart <br>Gorging himself in gloom: no love was left; <br>All earth was but one thought\u2014and that was death <br>Immediate and inglorious; and the pang <br>Of famine fed upon all entrails\u2014men <br>Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh; <br>The meagre by the meagre were devour'd, <br>Even dogs assail'd their masters, all save one, <br>And he was faithful to a corse, and kept <br>The birds and beasts and famish'd men at bay, <br>Till hunger clung them, or the dropping dead <br>Lur'd their lank jaws; himself sought out no food, <br>But with a piteous and perpetual moan, <br>And a quick desolate cry, licking the hand <br>Which answer'd not with a caress\u2014he died. <br>The crowd was famish'd by degrees; but two <br>Of an enormous city did survive, <br>And they were enemies: they met beside <br>The dying embers of an altar-place <br>Where had been heap'd a mass of holy things <br>For an unholy usage; they rak'd up, <br>And shivering scrap'd with their cold skeleton hands <br>The feeble ashes, and their feeble breath <br>Blew for a little life, and made a flame <br>Which was a mockery; then they lifted up <br>Their eyes as it grew lighter, and beheld <br>Each other's aspects\u2014saw, and shriek'd, and died\u2014 <br>Even of their mutual hideousness they died, <br>Unknowing who he was upon whose brow <br>Famine had written Fiend. The world was void, <br>The populous and the powerful was a lump, <br>Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless\u2014 <br>A lump of death\u2014a chaos of hard clay. <br>The rivers, lakes and ocean all stood still, <br>And nothing stirr'd within their silent depths; <br>Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea, <br>And their masts fell down piecemeal: as they dropp'd <br>They slept on the abyss without a surge\u2014 <br>The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave, <br>The moon, their mistress, had expir'd before; <br>The winds were wither'd in the stagnant air, <br>And the clouds perish'd; Darkness had no need <br>Of aid from them\u2014She was the Universe. <br><br>-Lord Byron"