Poem Acquainted With the Night - Robert Frost. The speaker tells the reader that he stopped to listen, but he does so in a peculiar way. I have been one acquainted with the night. You can see this idea emerge again and again in his poems. I have been one acquainted with the night.
You know there's nothing wrong, but nothing seems right either. I have been one acquainted with the night. Or is the speaker hesitant to discover or know his new surrounding? As hinted, above, Acquainted with the Night is highly rich in suggestive quality. Perhaps he is embarrassed to be walking about so late at night. He tells the reader that he has looked down many roads that seem to be sad—perhaps because it is dark, or perhaps for other reasons, such as poverty. It has to be faced alone. When power leads man towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations.
Sometimes, the night feels depressing and melancholy, and sometimes, the night feels strange. When the speaker is out walking on dark and lonely nights, he has often come across the watchman, who might be a guard, or a policeman, out on his rounds. There is something inside which needs to come out - perhaps it won't ever manifest - buried deep in the heart and soul. In 1962, he was presented the Congressional Gold Medal. Descriptions such as this one link Frost with Baudelaire and other French Symbolists who were dissatisfied with the sordidness, sadness, ennui and boredom which characterize the contemporary urban life. He has walked away from the city lights, and has walked to places outside the city, as well as places in the city that harbor an absence of lights. Time cannot judge, the moon set high in the sky declares this.
What do you all think? Pete didn 't come back until an hour before sunrise. While the poem's language and action is relatively simple, every line could have a hidden meaning, waiting to be discovered. I have been one acquainted with the night. I have passed by the watchman on his beat And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain. The poet-city walker has stood still and halted his further movement when he heard a sort of mixed cry coming over houses from another street.
The couple moved to England in 1912, after they tried and failed at farming in New Hampshire. I have walked out in rain - and back in rain. The night sky was filled with negative and positive charges clashing amongst themselves in an attempt to balance the electric charges. Nature is indifferent, as is time. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.
This decision eventually leads him back to the beginning, back to traditions. He remains one of the few American poets to have mastered terza rima, along with many other forms of poetry. Unfortunately, we never find out what makes the narrator so dejected, but Frost lets us know in his writing how the narrator handles things throughout his late night walking in the city. The poem is divided into five stanzas. This short poem takes the reader in to the mind of a speaker looking back at their life with a certain chill detachment. I have been one acquainted with the night. He has walked past other people, never meeting their gaze because he does not want to have to explain why he is out walking alone in the middle of the night.
Instead of stopping to talk to the watchman, the speaker drops his eyes to the ground in order to avoid conversation. Basically, this poem is about those creepy, melancholy times when we seem to be acquainted, but not friends, with the world. The rhymes form a kind of loose chain, apt for such a poem as this. Kokemuller has additional professional experience in marketing, retail and small business. If one is acquainted with walking alone at night, one most certainly has walked through rain storms while doing so. And still further, at a heavenly height, there was a brilliantly shining clock which stood fixed with a tower against the sky, and which made the declaration that time was neither wrong nor right. It's as if the self of the speaker is reminding everyone that this has really happened; that you have to go a long way before you get to where you want to be.
He became interested in reading and writing poetry during his high school years in Lawrence, enrolled at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, in 1892, and later at Harvard University in Boston, though he never earned a formal college degree. When the speaker comes across another human, the watchman, there is no eye contact but a turning away, a sign of shyness, guilt and lack of self esteem. It's a word far removed from befriended or intimate with. This line could also be read literally. I have passed by the watchman on his beat And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.
He hears it, but realizes that the cry is not intended for him. Copyright 1936, 1942 © 1956 by Robert Frost. I have been one acquainted with the night. Here is someone who has journeyed deep into their own psyche and discovered darkness, despite being in a city, surrounded by many others. Acquainted With The Night is written with a terza rima rhyme scheme, which was introduced to poetry by the famous Italian poet Dante.
At first glance, one would conclude the poem is about a man literally walking at night for so many nights. It's much easier to find rhymes in Italian, so this cyclical rhyming form is very difficult in English, but Frost masters it. A couple of days pass by, and twas time to extract the newborn from Mrs. In this kind of world identity goes through a crisis. Acquainted with the Night is one of the most celebrated poems of Robert Frost. A cry has no effect; the speaker knows it will have no connection with his life. Historical Background The Frost family was no stranger to mental illness, and unfortunately, Frost also suffered from bouts of depression.