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Acquainted With The Night Essay

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Robert Frost’s “Acquainted with the Night” is written in Terza Rima, a very uncommon form first used by Dante Alighieri, the famous Italian poet. Terza Rima is a very cyclical form, with the unusual rhyme scheme interlocking the stanzas. Frost uses this form to represent the cyclical nature of his night time journeys to the edge of town, as well at the cyclical nature of depression and suicidal ideation. The most interesting thing about this poem is how ambiguous it is, and how Frost goes about creating the ambiguity. It is extremely straight-forward, and is not hard to interpret literally. However, this straightforwardness is what makes it interesting, because it allows for many interpretations. The meter for this work is near-perfect, in a way that seems almost like a routine. It doesn’t falter, and this could represent the way the speaker walks every night, hoping to find something to shake him out of his misery. Terza Rima is not Frost’s usual fare, and while he was known to experiment with form, he wasn’t known to do so without purpose. The form plays well with the poem overall, with its repetitive nature and the repetitive nature of the poem itself. “I have been one acquainted …show more content…

Acquainted is defined as to “make someone aware of or familiar with”, which could go either way. Awareness requires next to nothing, so that could support a first-walk-theory, but I like “familiar” more here, as it contributes to the idea that the night is something the speaker is truly immersed in, something that has shaped him. “I have walked out in rain-- and back in rain” is probably meant to be taken literally, as just the image of a man deciding to go for a stroll in the rain implies many things, simply due to the fact that most people don’t go for walks in the rain and he will probably get

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