Out of SPACE—out of TIME
“By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon named NIGHT
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule—
From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime,
Out of SPACE—out of TIME.”
—Edgar Allen Poe, from Dreamland. As quoted in The Power of Blackness by Narry Levin, 1958.
the full, and the black, and the wild eyes
“these are the full, and the black, and the wild eyes—of my lost love. . . .”
—Edgar Allen Poe, from Ligeia. As quoted in The Power of Blackness by Narry Levin, 1958.
devilish dark
“DAGOO: What of that? [a streak of lightning] Who’s afraid of black’s afraid of me! I’m quarried out of it!
SPANISH SAILOR: (Aside) He want to bully, ah!—the old grudge makes me touchy. (Advancing.) Aye, harpooneer, thy race is the undeniable dark side of mankind—devilish dark at that. No offence.
DAGOO: (grimly) None.”
—Hermann Melville, from Moby Dick. As quoted in The Power of Blackness by Narry Levin, 1958.
The symbolism of terror
“The symbolism of terror is universal. Otherwise, Death would not ride a pale horse in Scripture, and the Ancient Mariner would never have been bedeviled by an albatross. The glitter of Antartic snow and ice . . . was the single mystery that Poe had left unresolved. . . . One effect of taking mescaline, Henri Michaux has recently testified, is an impression of “absolute white, white beyond all whiteness.” Truly, Melville seems justified in characterizing such an impression as ‘a dumb blankness, full of meaning, . . . a colorless all-color of atheism from which we shrink.’”
—Narry Levin, from The Power of Blackness, 1958.
Though black frost nip, though white frost chill
“Though black frost nip, though white frost chill,
Nor white frost nor the black may kill
The patient root, the vernal sense
Surviving hard experience.”
—Hermann Melville, from Clarel. As quoted in The Power of Blackness by Narry Levin, 1958.
the floor of Heaven
“Look how the floor of Heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold;”
—Lorenzo, William Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice.
darkness moved over the face of the abyss
“The earth was without form, and void; and darkness moved over the face of the abyss.”
—the Holy Bible, Genesis 1: 2, as quoted in The Prince of Darkness: Radical Evil and the Power of Good in History by Jeffrey Burton Russell, 1988.
darkness wrapped in darkness
“At first there was only darkness wrapped in darkness.”
—the Rig Veda, as quoted in The Prince of Darkness: Radical Evil and the Power of Good in History by Jeffrey Burton Russell, 1988.
Blackness
“Blackness and darkness are almost always asociated with evil, in opposition to the whiteness and light associated with good. This is true even in black Africa. Blackness has an immense range of negative and fearful associations: death, the underworld, the void, blindness, night stalked by robbers and ghosts. Psychologically it signifies the fearful, uncontrollable depths of the unconscious. it is also associated with depression, stupidity, sin, despair, dirt, poison, and plague.”
—Jeffrey Burton Russell, from The Prince of Darkness: Radical Evil and the Power of Good in History, 1988.
The red glow of hellfire
“The gods of the underworld, such as the Greco-Roman Plouton or Pluto, are lords of both fertility and death. The Devil’s association with hell comes from his identification with the malevolent aspects of the subterranean lord. The red glow of hellfire, together with the red tint of land scorched by fire and with the color of blood, led to the association of the Devil with the color red.”
—Jeffrey Burton Russell, from The Prince of Darkness: Radical Evil and the Power of Good in History, 1988.