Emily Dickinson Lexicon

DARK'NESS, n.

1. Absence of light. And darkness was on the face of the deep. – Gen. i.
2. Obscurity; want of clearness or perspicuity; that quality or state which renders any thing difficult to be understood; as, the darkness of counsels.
3. A state of being intellectually clouded; ignorance. Men loved darkness rather than light. – John iii.
4. A private place; secrecy; privacy. What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light. – Matth. x.
5. Infernal gloom; hell; as, utter darkness. – Matth. xxii.
6. Great trouble and distress; calamities; perplexities. A day of clouds and thick darkness. – Joel ii. Is. viii.
7. Empire of Satan. Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness. – Col. i.
8. Opakeness. Land of darkness, the grave. – Job x.