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Acquainted With The Night By Robert Frost

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Robert Frost 's “Acquainted with the Night” is about a man who frequently journeys out at night and roams about the city alone. He is familiar with the atmosphere around him and it’s apparent he has wandered far beyond the city. Throughout the poem the speaker does not communicate with anyone and a sense of silence and suspense pervade his walks. It is understood that the speaker is very lonely on his walks and often finds himself hoping someone would call out to him. As the speaker strolls through the dark city streets midst the night, it’s evident that he is deeply troubled and dismal as the poem develops a gloomy, dejected tone. The poem begins by stating “ I have been one acquainted with the night” which implies that the speaker is …show more content…

As Roger Gilbert stated “Such grammar dispels the kind of precise sequential focus that the earlier poems display, instead creating a repetitive space in which constancy rather than change is emphasized”(49-74) the repetition of the phrase “i have” adds a routined feel to the poem and reveals that his walks never impact his outlook and leave him with a constant state of mind. The speakers determination to continuously proceed on his walks is demonstrated when he states “I have walked out in the rain- and back again in the rain. / i have outwalked the furthest city light.” The “furthest city light” is a representation of the final signs of life the speaker passes before he can reach absolute darkness physically as well as mentally. By entering blackness, the speaker demonstrates a desire for loneliness and isolation from any form of life. Similarly, Roger Gilbert’s stated: “the speaker makes a point of “outwalk[ing] the furthest city light”(49-74),leaving behind the human markers and habitations that create a sense of community, and faring into a lonelier kind of landscape.” The last words of the first and third lines rhyme- “night” and “light” to link them together and emphasize the contrast of the bright city lights compared to his own darkness. The night is oftenly associated with its own horrors and mystery, and speaker relates to the night because it corresponds with his own sorrowful

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