We Grow Accustomed To The Dark And Acquainted With The Night

Not only do these poems share differences through the speakers childhood, but also through the tones of the works.

The experience of darkness is both individual and universal. Within Emily Dickinson’s “We grow accustomed to the Dark” and Robert Frost’s “Acquainted with the Night,” the speakers engage in an understanding of darkness and night as much greater than themselves. Every individual has an experience of the isolation of the night, as chronicled in Frost’s poem, yet it is a global experience that everyone must face, on which Dickinson’s poem elaborates. Through the use of rhythm, point of view, imagery, and mood, each poet makes clear the fact that there is no single darkness that is too difficult to overcome.

One of two ways that the author’s use of dashes and unusual capitalization are used to contribute to my understanding of the theme of darkness in the poem is by having a dash after the word “dark” in the very first line of the poem it draws attention to the word, this is shown in the following excerpt “We grow accustomed to the Dark --” this is strengthened when in the second line, when the author chose to capitalize the word “when” before the phrase “…light is put away--” therefore, strengthening the theme of darkness. Another way that the author’s use of dashes and unusual capitalization are used to contribute to my understanding of the theme of darkness in the poem is by capitalizing the words “a” and “moment” they caused a sense of hesitation,

In Emily Dickenson’s “We grow accustomed to the Dark” and Robert Frost’s “Acquainted with the Night” distinct views of hesitation in life are explained, and are manifested with each authors different point of views, structure, sound, imagery, and metaphors.

In the first poem called We grow accustomed to the Dark, the speaker finds her way through the dark night, as her eyes adjust to the darkness, she notices there’s “a road,” and specs of light where her curiosity grows. She notices things you cannot see in the daylight like the specs of stars and the bright moon. But before she was aware of her

Darkness is a recurring image in literature that evokes a universal unknown, yet is often entrenched in many meanings. A master poet, Emily Dickinson employs darkness as a metaphor many times throughout her poetry. In “We grow accustomed to the dark” (#428) she talks of the “newness” that awaits when we “fit our Vision to the Dark.” As enigmatic and shrouded in mystery as the dark she explores, Dickinson's poetry seems our only door to understanding the recluse. As she wrote to her friend T.W. Higginson on April 15, 1862, “the Mind is so near itself – it cannot see, distinctly”(Letters 253). In this musing, she acquiesces to a notion that man remains locked in an internal struggle with himself. This inner

In “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark” by Emily Dickinson, people leave their neighbor’s house and step in the darkness of the night. They walk with steps of uncertainty until they reach the road and their vision adjusts. But then, there is no light and it is completely dark. The braver people attempt to walk around and they end up hitting a tree. As time goes on, the dark changes and it is easier to see again.

The speaker refers to the night as his acquaintance. This implies that the speaker has a lot of experience with the night, but has not become friends with it. Thus, because even the night, which has been alongside the speaker in comparison to anything or anyone else, is not a companion to the speaker, the idea of loneliness is enhanced. In addition, “rain” (2) is used to symbolize the speaker’s feelings of gloom and grief, because there is continuous pouring of the rain, which is unlikely to stop. In line 3, “city light” is used to convey the emotional distance between the speaker and society. Although the speaker has walked extensively, he has not yet interacted with anyone – thus distancing himself even further from society. Moreover, the moon, in lines 11 to 12, is used as a metaphor of the speaker’s feelings. The speaker feels extremely distant from society that he feels “unearthly.” The idea of isolation and loneliness in this poem is used as the theme of the poem; and the use of the setting and metaphors underscores the idea that the speaker feels abandoned from society.

The poems “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark” and “Acquainted with the Night” both correlate night and depression, however they differ in tone. In “Acquainted with the Night” by Robert Frost, the narrator is trapped by depression. This struggle is represented by Dante Alighieri's rhyme scheme and the repetition of the first and last lines. By paralleling the Divine Comedy, the narrator is comparing his current depression to the stagnation of limbo. Oppressed by this persistent despondency, “Acquainted with the Night” adopts a hopeless, tired tone.

In both poems "We Grow accustomed to The Dark" and "Acquainted with the Night", darkness and night hold great significance in both poems. In "We Grow Accustomed to The Dark" by Emily Dickinson, the speaker vividly expresses how brave one has to be to cope with emotional problems, while the speaker in "Acquainted With The Night" by Robert Frost reflects on past personal experiences with darkness, both connecting uncertainty with darkness using imagery, point of view, and structure.

In “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark,” the speaker compares the poem to darkness and how things can get rough. Dickinson explains how not everything is going to be unclear.         “Either the darkness alters- Or something in the sight Adjusts itself to Midnight- And Life steps almost straight.”

The poems “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark” and “Acquainted with the Dark” are similar in a way because they both revolve around darkness and night. Although both poems talk about darkness and night, the concepts of both poems are very different. Both authors use literary devices to compare and contrast the theme of the poems.

¨We Grow Accustomed to the Dark¨ by Emily Dickinson gives us insight how she tries to

“When Light is put away - / As when the Neighbor holds the Lamp / To witness her Good bye”, stanza 1 was interpreted as if you were sent out on your own for the very first time. Thinking as if your neighbor is standing on the top of the porch holding a lamp for you to see, as well as waving good bye. However in stanza 2, that abruptly changes. “A Moment - We Uncertain step / For newness of the night - / Then - fit our Vision to the Dark - / And meet the Road - erect” that stanza was approached as if once you keep going and going getting further and further the neighbor will no longer be there any more with light to guide you. Once the light is gone, you are now on your own. You will come across the dark road pondering about where you are and where you are going. “ And so of larger - Darknesses - / Those Evenings of the Brain - / When not a Moon disclose a sign - / Or Star - come out - within”, stanza 3 was led to believe that when there is no longer lights nor the moon in sight, you are now dependent on your brain and knowledge to pave the way. “The Bravest - grope a little -/ And sometimes hit a Tree / Directly in the Forehead - / But as they learn to see” in stanza 3, the impression I got was that you might stumble a little, making mistakes and trying to search and find your way through the darkness. “Either the Darkness alters - / Or something in the sight / Adjusts

“Acquainted with the Night” by Robert Frost dramatizes the conflict that the speaker experiences with the outside world, which has rejected him, or perhaps which he has rejected. The poem is composed of fourteen lines and seven sentences, all of which begin with “I have.” Frost’s first and last line, “I have been one acquainted with the night,” emphasizes what it means for the speaker to be “acquainted with the night” (line 1; 14). The speaker describes his walk in the night as journey, in which he has “walked out of rain—and back in rain” and “outwalked the furthest city light” (line 2-3). Through the depiction of the changing weather conditions, Frost signifies the passage of time, perhaps indicating that the narrator has been on his journey for a lengthy period of time and has traveled through many cities. Furthermore, the imagery of the rain at night creates a forlorn atmosphere in the poem.