Robert Frost Poem Analysis

Robert Frost had a fascination towards loneliness and isolation and thus expressed these ideas in his poems through metaphors. The majority of the characters in Frost’s poems are isolated in one way or another. In some poems, such as “Acquainted with the Night” and “Mending Wall,” the speakers are lonely and isolated from their societies. On other occasions, Frost suggests that isolation can be avoided by interaction with other members of society, for example in “The Tuft of Flowers,” where the poem changes from a speaker all alone, to realizing that people are all connected in some way or another. In Robert Frost’s poems “Acquainted with the Night,” “Mending Wall,” and “The Tuft of Flowers,” the themes insinuate the idea of loneliness and isolation.

Frost uses metaphors to help conjure up the idea of loneliness and isolation in “Acquainted with the Night.” Robert Frost makes use of nature and the atmosphere of the setting of this poem, to convey this theme. The city is used to emphasize loneliness. Many people associate a city with bright lights, a warm and liberating atmosphere, and a dense population in comparison to the countryside. However, while the speaker is walking in the city, he rarely meets anyone and on those rare occasions when he encounters company, the speaker is reluctant to talk with him. In lines 5 and 6, the speaker passes a watchman. However, the watchman does not seem to be a comforting person so the speaker “drops his eyes” to avoid eye contact with the watchman. This illustrates isolation and loneliness because the speaker seems unwilling to interact with the people he passes. Afterwards, in lines 8 to 10, the speaker hears a cry, which the speaker believes to be calling for his help. However, the cry is ...

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...wever, in “The Tuft of Flowers,” the concept of aloneness aids the readers to be cognizant of the idea that humans are all connected somehow. In addition, the speakers in “Mending Wall” and “The Tuft of Flowers” do not choose to be alone, whereas the speaker in “Acquainted with the Night” does. In “Mending Wall,” the speaker wants to get rid of the wall, because it blocks the opportunity of communicating with the neighbor. In “The Tuft of Flowers,” the speaker mentions, “as all must be,” (9) which gives the impression that the speaker has no other choice but to be alone. In sharp contrast, in “Acquainted with the Night,” the speaker purposely avoids human contact and takes a walk at nighttime to be in solitude. Therefore, the concept of loneliness and isolation in the three poems analyzed is used to enhance and make known the poem’s theme in different circumstances.