Darkness

I had a dream, which was not all a dream.

John Martin's Apocalypse, Tate Britain, Pimilco, Westminster, SW1P

The bright sun was extinguish’d, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,

Glendalough, County Wicklow, Ireland

Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;

Mike Leigh's Naked (1993)

Morn came and went–and came, and brought no day,
And men forgot their passions in the dread

Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood (1952)

Of this their desolation; and all hearts
Were chill’d into a selfish prayer for light…

Bill Callahan's Apocalypse (2011)

From Lord Byron’s Darkness (1816)

St Martin-in-the-Fields

The Bible was the only book he read.

St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, Westminster, WC2N

He didn’t read it often but when he did he wore his mother’s glasses.

St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, Westminster, WC2N

They tired his eyes so that after a short time he was always obliged to stop.

St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, Westminster, WC2N

From Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood (1952)