In “Acquainted with the Night” by Robert Frost, the narrator goes through his night saying where he is and how he is alone. Considering the fact that he doesn’t make eye contact, it shows that he is incapable of interacting with other people. 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. This poem articulates depression, loneliness, and isolation.
Robert Frost's poem, "Acquainted with the Night," expresses depression. The first line says, "I have been one acquainted with the night" ("Acquainted"). This first line shows that night is a metaphor for depression. The narrator has been acquainted with unhappiness, not just a night. "Against the cityscape the persona sketches the street and the watchman as symbols of potential safety. But against the dark night of the city they produce nothing but despair" (Murray). It is evident that Frost is trying to display the narrator’s battle with sadness and hopelessness. The night could also represent death; therefore, it can make you assume that his depression is a result of losing someone he knew. Something is keeping him awake while others usually would be sleeping at this time. Another line, "I have walked out in rain - and back in rain" ("Acquainted") has the phrase "in rain" twice. This repetition is to set a dismal tone and make you think how awful walking in the rain at night would actually be. It shows how his misery stays constant. "It is the fear of discerning little or nothing in the rainy night. He yearns for an approachable order that societal institutions (the watchman), constructions (the city), and conventions cannot offer and have no...
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...ses such themes as sorrow and aloneness, basically all negative feelings associated with the gloomy night.
Works Cited
"Acquainted with the Night." Poetry for Students. Ed. Sara Constantakis. Vol. 35. Detroit: Gale, 2010. 1-21. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 16 Jan. 2014.
Frost, Robert, "Acquainted with the Night," in Complete Poems of Robert Frost, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1967, p. 324; originally published in West-Running Brook, Henry Holt, 1928.
Keat Murray, "Robert Frost's Portrait of a Modern Mind: The Archetypal Resonance of ‘Acquainted with the Night,’" in Midwest Quarterly, Vol. 41, No. 4, summer 2000, pp. 370-84.
Kyoko Amano, "Frost's ‘Acquainted with the Night,’" in Explicator, Vol. 65, No. 1, Fall 2006, pp. 39-42.
Melodie Monahan, Critical Essay on "Acquainted with the Night," in Poetry for Students, Gale, Cengage Learning, 2010.
...med the time was neither wrong nor right. / I have been one acquainted with the night.”(Frost 13-14) to talk about that at some point we must all experience the night he has described in the poem.
Waggoner, Hyatt H. "A Writer of Poems: The Life and Work of Robert Frost," The Times Literary Supplement. April 16, 1971, 433-34.
In the poem “Acquainted with the Night” by Robert Frost, the Romantic poet explores the idea of humanity through nature. This sonnet holds a conversational tone with a depressing mood as the man walks in the dark city trying to gain knowledge about his “inner self”. The narrator takes a stroll at night to embrace the natural world but ignores the society around him. His walk allows him to explore his relationship with nature and civilization. In “Acquainted with the Night”, the narrator emphasizes his isolation from the society by stating his connectivity with the natural world.
Our speaker seems a solemn individual. One, whom explores a city alone and by night, a favorable past time for anybody who does not want to be bothered. Yet, as evidenced in the form of the poem, our speaker seems to feel a spark of excitement when human interaction becomes a possibility within our story. However, it seems that our poet, Robert Frost, displays an uncanny knack for misdirection throughout the entirety of this poem, and unless we meticulously pick this poem apart, we may miss the real meaning behind Frost 's words. Case in point: At first glance, this poem, about a lonely individual, appears to focus on their desire for human companionship, but, just perhaps, our speaker is actually loath to admit his true feelings, that companionship is what they desire the least.
"Robert Frost" in The Columbia History of American Poetry. Ed. Jay Parini. Columbia University Press. 1997
Frost, Robert. "The Road Not Taken." The Norton Introduction to Literature.Eds.Alison Booth, J. Paul Hunter, and Kelly J. Mays. Shorter 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2006. 988
Stern, Fred. “Robert Frost: One Acquainted with the Night.” World & I, vol. 28, no.3, Mar 2013, p. 2 EBSCO/host, proxy.campbell.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pw&AN=87555602&site=pov-live.
Lentricchia, Frank. Robert Frost: Modern Poetics and the Landscape of Self. Durham: Duke University Press. 1975. 103-107.
After learning about Robert Frost personally, I can understand his inspiration and appreciate the meaning behind his poetry. Following his technique throughout his pieces, it’s clear that his origin and relationships greatly influenced his style and the themes portrayed in his poetry. From landscape, to human nature, Frost creates everlasting feelings within his audience that by the enable them to learn a hidden message. Also, his common New England lingo and conversational speech, personalize the poem. From late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century, Robert Frost has shared his works with the entire world and his influence and impact on today’s society will never be forgotten.
Frost is far more than the simple agrarian writer some claim him to be. He is deceptively simple at first glance, writing poetry that is easy to understand on an immediate, superficial level. Closer examination of his texts, however, reveal his thoughts on deeply troubling psychological states of living in a modern world. As bombs exploded and bodies piled up in the World Wars, people were forced to consider not only death, but the aspects of human nature that could allow such atrocities to occur. By using natural themes and images to present modernist concerns, Frost creates poetry that both soothes his readers and asks them to consider the true nature of the world and themselves.
strengthens his viewpoint and regards Frost as ―one of the most intuitive poets [. . . h]e sees
Frost, Robert. “The Road Not Taken”. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 7Th Ed. Nina
Richardson, Mark. The Ordeal of Robert Frost: The Poet and His Poetics. Urbana: University of Illinois, 1997. Print.
'Frost at Midnight' is generally regarded as the greatest of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 'Conversation Poems' and is said to have influenced Wordsworth's pivotal work, 'Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey'. It is therefore apposite to analyse 'Frost at Midnight' with a view to revealing how the key concerns of Romanticism were communicated through the poem.
2. Frost, Robert. Robert Frost’s Poems. Ed. Louis Untermeyer. New York: Washington Square Press, 1968. 223.