Careful Words

nothingness (n.)

He who hath bent him o'er the dead

Ere the first day of death is fled,—

The first dark day of nothingness,

The last of danger and distress,

Before decay's effacing fingers

Have swept the lines where beauty lingers.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: The Giaour. Line 68.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever;

Its loveliness increases; it will never

Pass into nothingness.

John Keats (1795-1821): Endymion. Book i.