Review of Robert Frost’s Poem, Acquainted with The Night

Robert Frost was one of the greatest and most famous poets in American history. One of his most well known poems is Acquainted With the Night. Acquainted With the Night is a somewhat sad poem, but all of its 14 lines have deep meaning and follow a complex rhyme scheme. The poem is supposedly about Jack Frost’s life. He is a man who cannot absorb any emotion or feeling. The poem describes how this man wanders without any reason or purpose.

Acquainted with the Night has a very distinctive and difficult rhyme scheme. It was originally used in Italian poems, but is harder to use in American poems. The rhyme scheme is (ABABCBCDCDADAA). This shows how Frost was as a poet. The poem is only 14 lines in total, but every line is placed in the perfect place. The poem itself has 10 syllables in each line, 8 of the lines begin with “I”and there are rhyming words like: acquainted, passed, proclaimed, looked, drooped and interrupted. The reason he repeated "I" so many times was he was talking about himself.

In the first stanza, his helpless and glum mood is made clear. In line three, the man “Outwalks the furthest city light”. The light symbolizes happiness and he has left the happiness in his life. This shows that Acquainted With the Night is about a man who walks around a city, wandering around pointlessly. The character seems to be saddened by his surroundings and he doesn't look at his surroundings. This could possibly mean he is a spectator and cannot interact with the objects around him. Since this poem is based on Frost's life the poem seems to be a metaphor for a depressing part of his life. The poem doesn't say anything about him being depressed, but it shows it.

Frost is very descripative and paints, clear imagery for the reader in Acquainted With the Night. Imagery is what the writer is trying to show the reader and not tell them with something they can imagine. An example of imagery is when he talks about the city lights, the moon, “walking there and back in the rain” and of course the night. Another line showing imagery is line twelve which describes the moon in the night; “One luminary clock against the sky”. All of these cases of imagery show his depressed state of being. In the second to last line it says, “Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right”. This line is telling the reader that the wanderer is so engulfed with sadness and is in a depressed state that he has lost track of time. The night symbolizes unhappiness and sadness, this symbolism is supported by the bleak and dark imagery.

Acquainted with the Night is a complex poem and it may seem short, but although it only has 14 lines. All 14 lines have thought-out meanings and it may need some rereading to completely understand it. The obscure rhyme pattern sets this poem aside from others. This poem tells the reader, that he is acquainted with sadness and loneliness. Frost's trophy of a poem is one to be remembered.