First published at 06:26 UTC on May 27th, 2022.
Just a nightmare or a hopeless end to the world?
1816 was known as “The Year Without a Summer”. Mount Tambora had erupted that year releasing enough volcanic ash into the atmosphere to shade the sun all over the world, reducing global temperature…
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Just a nightmare or a hopeless end to the world?
1816 was known as “The Year Without a Summer”. Mount Tambora had erupted that year releasing enough volcanic ash into the atmosphere to shade the sun all over the world, reducing global temperatures, causing abnormal weather across Europe and North America.
Byron opens the poem with “I had a dream, which was not all a dream” indicating that he himself dreamt the imagery he writes in this poem, but much of this imagery was inspired by what was happening in the year without a summer.
The poem relies heavily on elements of Biblical revelation, however unlike the Bible, there is no hope, in the end Darkness is the Universe.
This is one of the most descriptive and off putting works of poetry I have encountered.
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