我做了一个梦，但不全是梦。明亮的太阳熄灭了，星星在永恒的太空中徘徊，没有光线，没有道路，冰冷的大地在没有月亮的空气中盲目地摆动着，变黑了;早晨来了又去——来了又去，没有带来白昼，人们在对这荒凉的恐惧中忘记了他们的激情;所有的心都冻得发冷，自私地祈祷着光明。他们在篝火旁生活，把王座和国王的宫殿，以及一切生灵的住所，都烧成了灯塔。城市被焚毁，人们聚集在熊熊燃烧的房屋周围，再一次凝视彼此的脸;住在火山眼和山火里的人是幸福的:整个世界笼罩着一种可怕的希望;森林被点燃了——但是一个小时又一个小时，它们倒下了，枯萎了——噼啪作响的树干啪的一声熄灭了——一切都变黑了。在绝望的光线下，人们的眉毛，仿佛有一阵闪电落在他们身上，显出一种不寻常的样子;有人躺下，掩眼哭泣;有些人把下巴托在握紧的手上，面带微笑; And others hurried to and fro, and fed Their funeral piles with fuel, and look'd up With mad disquietude on the dull sky, The pall of a past world; and then again With curses cast them down upon the dust, And gnash'd their teeth and howl'd: the wild birds shriek'd And, terrified, did flutter on the ground, And flap their useless wings; the wildest brutes Came tame and tremulous; and vipers crawl'd And twin'd themselves among the multitude, Hissing, but stingless--they were slain for food. And War, which for a moment was no more, Did glut himself again: a meal was bought With blood, and each sate sullenly apart Gorging himself in gloom: no love was left; All earth was but one thought--and that was death Immediate and inglorious; and the pang Of famine fed upon all entrails--men Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh; The meagre by the meagre were devour'd, Even dogs assail'd their masters, all save one, And he was faithful to a corse, and kept The birds and beasts and famish'd men at bay, Till hunger clung them, or the dropping dead Lur'd their lank jaws; himself sought out no food, But with a piteous and perpetual moan, And a quick desolate cry, licking the hand Which answer'd not with a caress--he died. The crowd was famish'd by degrees; but two Of an enormous city did survive, And they were enemies: they met beside The dying embers of an altar-place Where had been heap'd a mass of holy things For an unholy usage; they rak'd up, And shivering scrap'd with their cold skeleton hands The feeble ashes, and their feeble breath Blew for a little life, and made a flame Which was a mockery; then they lifted up Their eyes as it grew lighter, and beheld Each other's aspects--saw, and shriek'd, and died-- Even of their mutual hideousness they died, Unknowing who he was upon whose brow Famine had written Fiend. The world was void, The populous and the powerful was a lump, Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless-- A lump of death--a chaos of hard clay. The rivers, lakes and ocean all stood still, And nothing stirr'd within their silent depths; Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea, And their masts fell down piecemeal: as they dropp'd They slept on the abyss without a surge-- The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave, The moon, their mistress, had expir'd before; The winds were wither'd in the stagnant air, And the clouds perish'd; Darkness had no need Of aid from them--She was the Universe.