Why did Lord Byron write the poem "The Vision of Judgment."

Byron wrote “Darkness” in July-August 1816. The poem is at least partly influenced by the mass hysteria of the time brought about by an Italian astronomer’s prediction that the sun would burn itself out on July 18th, thus destroying the world. The prophecy gained adherents due to the increase in sunspot activity at the time and the so-called “year without a summer” of 1816—an ongoing overcast sky which was a result (unknown at the time) of the eruption of Mount Tambora, an Indonesian volcano, in 1815. During this gloomy time, the sun was pale and the sky clouded and hazy. Temperatures dropped and thunderstorms dominated the weather. During the solar eclipse of June 9th-10th, the sun actually seemed to vanish from the sky.

All these natural phenomena combined to put the more sensitive observers into a state of panic. Byron composed his poem after the sun’s alleged death date, emphasizing that the end of days had not arrived but that the specter of complete destruction may still lie ahead one day. Whatever Byron’s view, he certainly managed to capitalize on the previous hysteria by evoking that dark summer in “Darkness.”