Poems about Darkness (2024)

Charles Baudelaire’s ‘A Carcass’ intertwines beauty and decay, startling the readers through graphic imagery.

The scene centered around the decomposing carcass is grim, repulsive, and in stark contrast to traditional notions of beauty, delving into the more uncomfortable aspects of human existence. Nevertheless, the poem's overall tone and imagery create an unsettling atmosphere, showing the ultimate dark truth about the existence or the perpetual darkness that encircles all beauty, exemplified through the juxtaposition of beautiful and grotesque elements. Moreover, these ideas are directed toward the beloved romantically, informing about her inescapable and bleak future with an undertone of dark humor.

My love, do you recall the object which we saw,

That fair, sweet, summer morn!

At a turn in the path a foul carcass

On a gravel strewn bed,

‘Huge Vapours Brood above the Clifted Shore’ by Charlotte Smith describes a brooding storm the lighted paths of life one might choose to follow.

Darkness in this poem acts as a shroud that conceals true understanding, encapsulating the concept of life's uncertainties. It is both literal, as in the night setting, and metaphorical, as in the "life's long darkling way," offering a multifaceted layer to the poem's thematic explorations.

Huge vapours brood above the clifted shore,

Night o’er the ocean settles, dark and mute,

Save where is heard the repercussive roar

Of drowsy billows, on the rugged foot

‘Light, oh where is the light?’ by Rabindranath Tagore is about how important love is if one is trying to maintain a happy life.

Darkness is a very important topic in this poem. From the first lines, the speaker is trying to find a way to light up the darkness and brave it, despite all the horrors he visualizes within it. The light becomes a representation of love growing in his heart.

Light, oh where is the light? Kindle it with the burning fire of desire!

There is the lamp but never a flicker of a flame,—is such thy fate, my heart! Ah, death were better by far for thee!

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‘The Hollow Men’ presents the hollow, degenerated, and disillusioned people dealing with their meaningless existence amidst the ruins of the postwar world.

Conrad's Heart of Darkness uses darkness as a motif to suggest dehumanized and morally debased humans; 'The Hollow Men' while referring to Heart of Darkness, also uses darkness as a motif to describe the "sightless (l- 61)" and degenerated modern humanity wherein on everything "falls the shadow (l - 75)" of darkness.

We are the hollow men

We are the stuffed men

Leaning together

Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!

‘A Castle-Builder’s World’ byChristina Rossetti describes an empty and inauthentic world. It serves as a warning against spiritual emptiness.

Darkness is inherent in the poem’s mood. It is seen from the barren landscapes to the soulless entities. This darkness could signify emotional turmoil, moral ambiguity, or existential doubt. It also feels as though the people in this poem are living in a kind of physical darkness as well.

Unripe harvest there hath none to reap it

From the misty gusty place,

Unripe vineyard there hath none to keep it

In unprofitable space.

‘What Though the Dark Come Down’ by Annette Wynne is a powerful, four-stanza poem that explores the power, or lack thereof, darkness holds.

Darkness is the main focus of this poem, found throughout all four stanzas and is the central topic that the poet is interested in.

What though the dark come down,

What though the shadows fall,

What though the dark come on the sea,

And the ships and the hills and all?

‘The Greatest of These is Charity’ by Christina Rossetti emphasizes that while faith and hope are essential virtues, love is the greatest and most enduring of them all.

Darkness pervades the poem's first stanzas. It represents despair, doubt, and spiritual weariness. This darkness is both cosmic (dimming celestial bodies) and internal (faltering virtues).

A moon impoverished amid stars curtailed,

A sun of its exuberant lustre shorn,

A transient morning that is scarcely morn,

A lingering night in double dimness veiled.—

Vernon Scannell’s ‘Hide and Seek’ delves into loneliness and abandonment through a narrative of a hide-and-seek game.

Darkness is both a literal and metaphorical motif, enveloping the narrative in an atmosphere of dread. The game's initial excitement turns dark, intensified by the protagonist's isolation in the dimly lit shed. The seekers' sudden disappearance in the garden's darkness amplifies this feeling of unease and underlying dark concerns. Furthermore, the symbolic use of darkness reinforces the cautionary message against the folly of hiding, which can lead to isolation and emotional darkness.

Call out. Call loud: ‘I’m ready! Come and find me!’

The sacks in the toolshed smell like the seaside.

They’ll never find you in this salty dark,

But be careful that your feet aren’t sticking out.

‘Dreams’ by Anne Bronte explores the power of dreams as the speaker fantasizes about having a child to call her own.

While on my lonely couch I lie,

I seldom feel myself alone,

For fancy fills my dreaming eye

With scenes and pleasures of its own.

‘Nightpiece’ by James Joyce unfolds as a beguiling but depressing vision of a nearly star-less night as it envelops the sky above the speaker.

A topic that the poem touches on is the ubiquity of darkness that comes with nightfall. A few of the poems in 'Pomes Penyeach,' as well as some in 'Chamber Music,' explore the effects that the absence of light has on the human spirit and mind. Here, Joyce illustrates that impact with deft clarity and imagery that captures the mercurial ways night alters one's mood.

Gaunt in gloom,

The pale stars their torches,

Enshrouded, wave.

Ghostfires from heaven's far verges faint illume,

‘Rhapsody on a Windy Night,’ with its spooky mood and setting, captures the tortured and fragmented human psyche amidst a destructed world.

Darkness is a constant motif in 'Rhapsody on a Windy Night.' The poem is set in the dead of the night, and the darkness seems to subsume any light on the street where the speaker is wandering. The darkness symbolizes the disturbed psyche of the speaker and the futility of the desolate modern world.

Twelve o'clock.

Along the reaches of the street

Held in a lunar synthesis,

Whispering lunar incantations

‘The Darkling Thrush’ by Thomas Hardy envisions a desolate winter landscape as metaphor for the decline of human civilization — where a solitary but joyous birdsong is its only hopeful feature.

The only mention of darkness is located in the poem's title as the word "darkling." This could be about the bird's color, which is likely given it is described by the speaker as being "blast-beruffled," and to the arrival of dusk as evidenced by the thrush's "happy good-night." Persisting despite the imminent fall of darkness singing a song of "blessed Hope."

I leant upon a coppice gate

When Frost was spectre-grey,

And Winter's dregs made desolate

The weakening eye of day.

‘The Tyger’ is a well-known poem by William Blake. It explores the dark and destructive side of God and his creation.

The poem explores themes of darkness and the unknown. The tiger, with its fearsome nature and the mystery of its creation, represents the darker aspects of existence and the unknowable aspects of creation.

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,

In the forests of the night;

What immortal hand or eye,

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

‘God’s Light-Houses’ by Helen Hunt Jackson is a visually stunning poem that muses over the various types of light that guide maritime travelers and the planets alike.

Darkness is just as present as light in Jackson's poem, its veiling powers lending a fearful danger to all those attempting to navigate the sea at night. This is why lighthouses are so important as they offer a "guiding ray." Yet the speaker also confesses that storms can "obscure their radiance."

When night falls on the earth, the sea

From east to west lies twinkling bright

With shining beams from beacons high

Which flash afar a friendly light.

‘Years’ by Sylvia Plath wrestles with the wearisome nature of eternity while yearning for the rapture of motion.

Another topic mentioned in the poem is darkness, appearing in the first two stanzas. At first, this blackness is described as being a freezing expanse, but then it becomes a "vacuous black." For the speaker, this absence of light is emblematic of the empty nothingness equated to a life without passion or activity.

They enter as animals from the outer

Space of holly where spikes

Are not thoughts I turn on, like a Yogi,

But greenness, darkness so pure