Acquainted with the Night, by Robert Frost (1874-1963) The poem Acquainted with the Night was written by Robert Frost and first printed in a collection called West Running Brook published in 1928. Robert Frost's poetry painted a classic picture of life in America. We get glimpses of every day scenes featuring every day people. We also get a picture of the very troubled and depressed Frost himself. When reading Frost's poetry, it is important to consider the source of the melancholy tone and obsession with ghosts, death, loneliness and sorrow. Robert Frost had many losses in his personal life, business, and loved ones. He moved many times. It is a little known fact that Frost suffered from Tuberculosis. This disease was in epidemic proportions at the time. Tuberculosis not only effects your ability to breath, lowers your immune system, and steals your energy, it also causes sleeplessness, nervousness, and a deep sense of melancholy. [Lawrence, 1970]. This is reflected in much of Frost's Poetry. There are two possibilities that surface when I read Acquainted with the Night. The first is insomnia and depression caused by Tuberculosis, a silent suffering that only he could know. The second is a description of the plight of a homelessness man at night. I believe that the character being homeless in the poem is better supported than that of insomnia.

Acquainted with the Night has a great sense of loneliness and sorrow. In the rhythm of the verses, it is easy to hear the steady rhythmic footsteps of the character on the pavement as he walks. The repetitive steady rhythm of the...

It seems as if the footsteps could go on forever and never reach their destination.
The first hint of isolation is in the first verse. The speaker is currently in the city where it is raining. Most of Frost's poetry is set in rural New England. The city is not a place where he is most comfortable and lends a sense of alienation to the poem [Lentricchia, 1975]. This is evident in the phrase; "I walked down the saddest city lane." Another reference to loneliness is the confrontation with the night watchman. The speaker associates himself with the night watchman, who usually works alone at night. The speaker's loneliness is further conveyed by the phrase, "an interrupted cry" that neither calls him back nor says goodbye. There is no one here who knows him. The call was for someone else. His only company is the continuous, never-ending march of time the "Luminary clock," which could be referring to the moon.

To this point the analysis given could be insomnia or loneliness caused by anything. All they indicate is a deep sense of loneliness. His use of opposites, first this…then the other, gives us a sense that he has done this walking many nights before. In line two "out in rain -- and back in rain" gives s sense that this isolation is and endless dream repeated over and over. Another use of this technique is in the line, "But not to call me back or say goodbye." It appears again when he proclaimed that time "was neither wrong nor right." The feeling of endlessness is emphasized by…