Imagine yourself walking down a lonely street during a quiet night. The only persons still out at this time are watchmen, or commonly known as security guards or officers. Create a mental picture of yourself treading along and staring down the “saddest city lane”. Could you imagine yourself outwalking “the furthest city light”? What type of feelings come over you as you add an “interrupted cry” to your mental picture but only to realize that it’s not to call you back or to “say good-by”?
In “Acquainted with the Night” by Robert Frost, the character experiences what can be described as a rather unfavorable, lonely interaction with the night. Although its light-hearted title suggest that the character is simply getting to know or becoming acquainted with the night, this poem contains various examples in which one could use to argue that this poem has a poignant tone and speaks about solitude of the human condition. The repeated phrase of “I have been acquainted with the night” is the character’s realization and confession of their true loneliness in this poem.
Robert Frost is known for his deceiving darker poems and his recurrent theme of isolation and loneliness (P. 119). Because “Acquainted with the Night” seems as a carefree poem about a character carrying on throughout the night from a superficial read, it is easy to miss the slightly darker imagery taking place. These aspects of Frost’s looming writing on the favorable subject of loneliness is formulated and best seen in this poem.
The poem mentions “rain” and walking out and back into the rain in the first stanza. Although rain does not have a completely negative connotation, its sensible to say that most people would not choose to walk at night and especially if it is raining. This dynamic between people and rainy weather opens up the poem to the lonely aspect and tone of this poem. Logically, no one would rightfully choose to walk out in the rain at night but the character has “walked out in the rain - and back in the rain”, (P. 130) alone.
In the second stanza, the author writes about the characters interaction with those who still are out at night, dutiful watchmen. In this interaction, the character has “passed by the watchman”. This interaction does not exhibit anything unordinary until the reader learns about how the character further handles this contact. It states he “dropped [his] eyes, unwilling to explain” (P. 130). This shows that the character indirectly acknowledged how unusual his presence at this time of night is. Unfortunately, he had nothing to say for himself.
Lastly, the poem begins and ends with the phrase “I have been acquainted with night”. Through the entirety of the poem, nothing has changed. By repeating this phrase, it is almost as if the author wanted readers to assume that this interaction has taken place many times before. Nothing about this acquaintance is new to the character; the character and the night are more than just acquaintances.
In the “Acquainted with the Night” poem, a character depicts his interaction with the night which highlights the loneliness of the human condition. This poem is not one of happiness or delight but instead aloneness and solitude. The images described and phrases used in the poem stress the overall dark tone. Robert Frost uses this work to emphasize two aspects: darkness and lonesome human condition.
Work Cited
"Robert Frost." The Seagull Reader Poems. Ed. Joseph Kelly. 2nd ed. Print.
