Acquainted With The Night

Robert Frost is a great American poet that mastered the art of eloquently imprinting his readers with an overarching idea, or theme, through his use of symbolic language, precise picture painting, and metronome rhyme and meter. Frost addresses many different themes across his poems, but sometimes has similar methods of displaying his themes; three of the most prominent are the crossroads of a decision in “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” the battle between desire and hate in “Fire and Ice,” and the loss of innocence in “Nothing Gold Can Stay.”

Each author’s different points of views plays a roles in their experience. Dickenson assimilates the hesitation darkness brings to walking down a dark unfamiliar road. No light in this poem shows the novice nature of the explorer. “And sometimes hit a Tree, Directly in the Forehead…” can be seen as humorous and assist the reader in identifying with the explorer, who habitually has made the same misjudgments most people have experienced. Frost’s point of view acknowledges the he is a more

In line 1 the word “night” is used as a metaphor when the author writes, “I have been one acquainted with the night”. “Night” represents depression and the fact that he is lonely; he is in a dark place all by him-self. Another metaphor is walking, and what he has passed by. By leaving and becoming distant that represents his loneliness, his isolation. “I have walked out in rain- and back in rain. / I have outwalked the furthest city light.” (Frost, 2-3). The reader gains the knowledge of his depression, and can further grasp the concept of his isolation. These metaphors fit the tone of the poem because they are metaphors with a depressing meaning, which follows the sad and dark tone of the

The surroundings of this city’s at night only continue to push the narrator deeper into his depressive state. In the poem the narrator states, “I have been one acquainted with the night. I have walked out in rain - and back in rain. I have outwalked the furthest city light. I have looked down the saddest city lane.”

The narrator feels isolated from everything, even though he is in the city. He roams around the city street back and forth in unfriendly conditions such as rain, filled with emptiness and hopelessness. In this poem, night is used as metaphor for depression- the narrator is not just acquainted with literally the night, he is acquainted with

Frost 's views on the effect of human nature on choice are revealed in the last three lines of "Acquainted with the Night": "One luminary clock against the sky / Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right. / I have been one acquainted with the night" (12-14). In this excerpt from the poem, the moon indicates to the speaker that it is not the right or wrong time, implying that it is up to the speaker to decide whether or not to take action. The aspect of human nature that is highlighted in this poem is the tendency of man to wait for a "sign" or for the time to be "right" before taking action against the current

The poem has a balanced rhythm and the first line rhymes with the third and final line of each stanza until the final stanza. The final stanza completes the circle and repeats the initial line of the poem. In addition to the rhyming within each stanza, Frost wrote this poem to consistently throughout where each stanza had exactly ten syllables and every other word was stressed while reading. This poem also uses night as a metaphor. Throughout the poem, darkness is represented by the night. It doesn’t represent death, but it is more of a metaphor for depression or sadness. The poem tells of a man that is walking alone at night through a city. The narration of the poem not only uses night as a metaphor, it also uses imagery and symbolism to enhance the depth of the poem. In the poem, the man hears a cry “far away”(Frost 503) and he is said to have “outwalked the city light.”(Frost 503) This symbolism is used to depict the man as being alone and not around anything. He has walked away from all the lights of the city and is in the darkness of the night. No one else is around and people would have a hard time hearing him from where he is. When the man passed a watchman, he “dropped my eyes.”(Frost 503) He seemed shy and distant and refused to make any sort of contact with other individuals. In addition to the darkness, Frost writes that it is raining as the man is walking alone at night. The poet uses the dark setting, the

In the poem, “Acquainted with the Night,” by Robert Frost, the main idea revolves around the physical and emotional isolation that the speaker is feeling. At first glance, the reader might see the poem as only slightly gloomy and dark. However, as the poem develops, it becomes more obvious that the speaker is stuck in a spiral of depression. The speaker states that he has “walked out in rain-and back in rain” to explain that he has been in a recurrent state of emotional isolation (Frost 2). The word “rain” symbolizes the speaker’s feeling of depression, and the rain further shows how the speaker’s depression is a persistent problem. Because the speaker is dealing with emotional isolation, he is feeling alone- like he has no one to talk to while

The narrator recounts a time when he rejects help from a trustworthy authority. He recounts that he “passed by the watchman on his beat /And dropped his eyes, unwilling to explain”. In the poem, the watchman acts as an honest person whose job is to overlook the community during night time. Thereby, association with the watchmen symbolizes an escape from the narrator’s solitude. When Frost resists interaction with the watchmen, he conveys that he wants to be left alone.

Literary terms in “Acquainted with the Night” include darkness and loneliness. In the poem, Robert Frost says “I have looked down the saddest city lane”, my belief is that this “street” is lifeless. This poem is obvious taken place in the title, hence the title. The structure of “Acquainted with the Night” is an iambic pentameter, which pattern is, aba bcb cdc dad aa.

In the poem Robert Frost uses his rhyme scheme and rhythm to have the sadness flow throughout the entire poem, as his use of terza rima is used to rhyme his words together.\ He also uses alliteration, as to put a point the words in and have the poem have it deep meaning. The sounds used help give it the sad and lonely vibe its suppose to go off, it also gives the poem a simple reading but in reality it has a much deeper meaning, “But not to call me back or say good-by; And further still at an unearthly height One luminary clock against the sky”as

“Acquainted with the Night” by Robert Frost dramatizes the conflict between the speaker and the purposeless darkness in which he wanders. In this poem, the speaker uses the present perfect tense, implying that his actions in the poem's narrative have been going on for long and even unknown amount of time, increasing the credibility of his acquaintance with the night. After beginning with the statement that he has “been one acquainted with the night,” the speaker continues to elaborate to his audience, perhaps a friend, about his acquaintance. He first explains his actions in general: “walked” and “outwalked,” “looked” down city lanes, and “passed by” the watchman. Then the speaker slows down the narrative by expanding his statements and explaining

“Acquainted with the Night” is a well written poem. Before I read the poem, I believed it would express how the speaker is more familiar with the night life than day life. Instead, the poem is a sonnet comparing a sad lonely person to the darkness of the night. Darkness is symbol for sadness, loneliness, and depression. That description fits the speaker. The speaker is walking on a rainy, dark night. He sees a watchman that is on duty but he does not make eye contact with him to avoid having conversation with the watchman. Then, the speaker stopped because he heard a cry that seem to be far away. He realizes the cry is not for him so he looks up to “an unearthly height”, which may be the moon, to determine what time it was; but whatever time

One symbolic word in the poem is night. Night usually is referencing to dark, but in this literature, it is referring to depression and emptiness. To begin with, the main character is acquainted with the night, therefor he is familiar with depression and being lonely. This is not the first time he has been engulfed with these type of emotions and feelings. Also, he is the only one who is walking the streets, meaning he is lonely. Line seven states, “I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet…” indicating that he is the only one making a sound. While everyone else is in their homes, he is wandering the streets feeling useless. Normally, light is seen as being bright. Frost portrays this light as happiness and joy. The main character is unfamiliar with those feelings and outwalks the bright light, as shown in line three, “I have outwalked the furthest city light.” Although night and light differ from each other, they both explain the character’s perception of his

Both showcase a sense of darkness through lines such as, “When not a Moon disclose a sign – Or Star – come out – within”(Dickinson) as well as “I have outwalked the furthest city light” (Frost). The use of imagery throughout each poem aids in the portrayal a lack of light, or darkness and night. Through the pictures painted by the poets both darkness and night are given negative, upsetting or sad depictions. However Dickinson’s poem, expresses a general blackness and inability to see anything, demonstrated in “The Bravest – grope a little – And sometimes hit a Tree Directly in the Forehead – But as they learn to see –”. The imagery creates a sense that darkness is frightful because it is impossible to see in the blackness, in other words a fear of the unknown. Frost’s poem on the other hand paints a far more depressing picture of the night, as illustrated in, “I have looked down the saddest city lane. / I have passed by the watchman on his beat / And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain”. This image of sadness and depression is shown through the dropping of the head and unwillingness to meet the eyes of another human. It is furthered by the employment of anaphoric repetition, when the author repeats; “I have” over and over. The repetition instills almost a lack of emotion due to the continued use of the expression. It seems that in Frost’s poem the speaker is left observing their