Loneliness and Isolation in Robert Frost's Poem

Examine the ways in which Frost explores ideas about loneliness and isolation in three poems you have studied.

Robert Frost, an infamous poet best known for his original poetic technique, displays a reoccurring idea or theme of loneliness and isolation throughout many of his published works. The ways in which Frost represents and symbolizes ideas of solitude and desolation in poems are somehow slightly or very different. Loneliness and isolation are illustrated through Frost’s use of the dark night as well as depression in “Acquainted With the Night”, the objects the speaker encounters in “Waiting”, and the sense of abandonment and death in “Ghost House.”

To begin with, the understanding of loneliness and desolation is identified through the use of the dark night in one of Frost’s most popular poems, “Acquainted With the Night.” Briefly, this poem revolves around a lonely speaker who is endlessly taking a walk beyond the city he or she lives in but is not able to locate anything or anyone that would comfort the speaker in his or her stage of depression. Loneliness and isolation are actually two of the crucial themes associated with this poem. The speaker is being “acquainted with the night,” because the night shares the same emotion that the speaker carries. They carry the same emotion because from personal references, the nighttime is often referred to as the time of reflection, sadness, loneliness, and indeed isolation. There is and evident choice of diction to depict isolation like, “the furthest city light,” (L3) as the speaker grows farther away from the city and loses light, which contributes more to the idea of the dark night. This also heightens the understanding of the speaker’s depression and isolation. “The s...

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In conclusion, Frost has explored different ways in which he incorporates loneliness and isolation in many of his poems. Three of Frost’s most popular poems demonstrates this act as solitude and desolation is represented and symbolized through the dark night in “Acquainted With the Night,” the objects and experiences the speaker bears in “Waiting,” and finally, the theme of abandonment and abdication in “Ghost house.” The aspect of loneliness and isolation helps enhances the main message or possibly the theme of the poems more.

Works cited:

- Frost, Robert. “Acquainted With the Night.” Robert Frost: Selected Poems. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 58-59

- Frost, Robert. “Ghost House.” Robert Frost: Selected Poems. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 18-19

- Frost, Robert. “Waiting.” Robert Frost: Selected Poems. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 20