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...
Kidd. The poet's journey toward the night, his familiarity with the night, both represents the poet's search for "complete self-knowledge" and his willingness to explore unknown - again, mysterious - territory. In the second stanza, Amano conjectures that Frost is putting the persona into the reader's consciousness in the form of a denial of others. The "watchman" is the only other human in this poem, of course, but beyond that,
Robert Frost, "Acquainted with the Night" Robert Frost's "Acquainted with the Night" is not a traditional sonnet. Although it has the traditional fourteen lines and tightly rhymed stanzas associated with both Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnets, Frost's rhyme scheme here is unusual: he uses the interlinking rhymes structured around successive tercets that is known as terza rima, whose greatest proponent was probably Dante in The Divine Comedy. But Frost takes the radical
To be "acquainted with the night" is here obviously to have an experience of the darker and more profound regions of the human mind. All the images in the text indicate that the poet crosses the boundaries of consciousness, entering a world of veiled darkness, beyond the "furthest city light": "I have been one acquainted with the night. / I have walked out in rain -- and back in
Robert Frost's adulthood was also riddled with loss. He often felt jealous and resentful that the quality of his poetry was slow to be recognized. Unable to support his family with his writing, for many years he had to work at various jobs, often as a teacher until his grandfather finally gave him land to live on and an allowance with on which to live (Meyers, p. 52). In addition,
Robert Frost wrote, "I have written to keep the over curious out of the secret places in my mind both in my verse and in my letters." In a poem, he wrote, "I have been one acquainted with the night." Those unfamiliar with Robert Frost's life story might not realize the significance of those words. Frost was born in a nearly lawless city and grew up in a highly dysfunctional
Frost's piece "Fire and Ice" is also rich with metaphors about the human condition. Frost begins his piece with "Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice." Again at first glance, frost appears to be discussing the end of the world. However, his next line "From what I've tasted of desire, I'll hold with those who favor fire." Frost appears to be discussing the end of
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now