Acquainted With The Night Literary Devices

Frost uses metaphors in “Acquainted with the Night” to express the darkness and loneliness that are familiar feelings for those that suffer with depression. Though the entire poem can be interpreted as a metaphor for depression, Frost uses individual words and phrases as metaphors as well. In the

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Many fear the night and what mysteries lurk inside it but poet Robert Frost views night in a very different way. In his poem "Acquainted with the Night", Frost uses repetition, tone, and symbolism to tell about the dark sad times he has experienced in his life. This poem tells a story about a man who walks around a lonely city during the nighttime. The repetition of words and phrases clearly shows Frost's view on night.

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

“Acquainted with the Night” written by Robert Frost, is a dark and moody poem, the poem is taken place in a dark time throughout this “city”. The poem is dark in which there was an “interrupted cry”, from my view there is someone either forcing the supposed “cryer” to be quiet or putting their hand over their mouth. I relate to this poem by the fact that I have lived a life where there was a sad time affecting me so much.

“Acquainted with the night” by Robert Frost, gives an example of something so common in the modern world. However, in 1928 many people did not talk nor recognize the effects that depression had on a person. This poem gave something taboo a voice and turned it into a feeling.

In “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost, the author develops the powerful theme of a person’s relationship with nature using repetition and rhyme. The repetition of the phrase at the end of the poem brings attention to the obligations that the speaker has that conflict with their desire to slip into the darkness of the woods and succumb to the lure of nature. The poem ends with “The woods are lovely, dark and deep/ But I have promises to keep/ And miles to go before I sleep/ And miles to go before I sleep.” This stanza encompasses the theme of the poem; the contradiction between two sides of the person. With the delicate usage of words in the poem, the author is able to communicate the theme. The poem is the author’s way of commenting on the human condition but also on the beauty of nature. The woods are described as dark and deep, but also lovely which implies the speakers hesitant desire for darkness and the ending of

In conclusion, “Stropping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, is Frost’s most famous poem, and also a very controversial one. Some of the critics tend to say that it is literally a journey from home. Those critics, explain that he feels forced to leave the peaceful place that he is in, and head home. On the other hand, others say that the last stanza means a symbolic death. Which in my opinion, I will agree because it clearly defines his desire, but he is trying to make the poem sound better and simple by using the allusion

The poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening was published in Robert Frost’s New Hampshire in 1924 (Pritchard). The poem is among the most easily recognizable and familiar works written by Frost. On the surface, this poem is a short encounter at the edge of a snowy forest. Perhaps its outer simplicity is what makes the poem stand out in the minds of readers. The straightforward structure and balanced rhyme pattern make it easy to recite and the imagery Frost evokes is both beautiful and engaging. However, this surface level is only a façade to the underlying subject matter. As Ciardi puts it, the surface-level events display “… the pretended simplicity of the narrative,” suggesting that Frost intends a deeper

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

Robert Frost’s “Stopping by woods on a snowy evening” reveals how a simple moment spent appreciating nature and the temptations it holds can symbolize a deeper, dangerous sense of isolation from the civilized world, and how a connection to civilization can save you. Through imagery, mood, and meter, the poet carefully constructs a scene for his audience. The scene is brief, like the poem. It is a pause on a journey, on a dark night in winter, through lovely, deep woods that tempt the poet to remain. A quick action by the poet’s horse, a shake of harness bells, immediately pulls the poet back to his journey and his responsibilities. It is tempting to simply read the poem and appreciate the moment at face value. However, much like the forest in the poem, a deeper look into the poem’s construction may be necessary to fully appreciate that scene.

As the poem becomes increasingly complex, the conventional metaphor of falling “snow” contributes layer upon layer of meaning. The “downy flake” transcends its literal sense, becoming a ‘blanket’ that both obscures and numbs the senses, hiding the dangers whilst tempting the traveller to stop. The coldness and darkness of the setting contrasts the purity of snow with the shadowy, even sinister idea that nature is enticing us with eternal rest. Frost’s allusions to the poem, ‘Keen fitful gusts’ with the line “and miles to

Have you ever read a poem that was so well written that you could almost imagine yourself being the person in the poem and feeling all of the emotions portrayed by the speaker? In the poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, written by Robert Frost in 1923, you receive that exact feeling. The poem is about a man stopping to admire the beauty that are the woods on a snowy night on his way to complete his task. This poem had many parts that could be well analyzed, which was surprising for how short the poem truly was. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” had many literary terms including the structure of the stanzas, symbols and imagery in each line, and the theme and tone of the entire poem.