The poem I chose was “Acquainted with the Night”, written by Robert Frost. This poem is written in first person, so the narrator lets the reader in to his feelings and thoughts. “Acquainted with the Night” is about the narrator, himself, describing his feelings of depression and his outlook on life. How he feels isolated from everyone and everything and nothing can take him out of his state of depression. The theme of “Acquainted with the Night” is the feeling of being isolated, and lonely.
In stanza 1 the narrator starts to give a glimpse of his depression. He describes his past walks in the dark rain coming in and out. How his depressing walks in the rain have led him further from the light and deeper into the mist of darkness. When the author describes him walking further from the light, it represents the hope that is slowly diminishing. Stanza 2 the narrator shows more of the loneliness with the “saddest city lane”; this gives the reader a sad feeling because it is a dark rainy night and he isolates himself. Passing by the watchman and he looks down as if he is keeping himself isolated from everyone. In stanza 3 the narrator has his last bit of hope when he stops
…show more content…
In line 1 the word “night” is used as a metaphor when the author writes, “I have been one acquainted with the night”. “Night” represents depression and the fact that he is lonely; he is in a dark place all by him-self. Another metaphor is walking, and what he has passed by. By leaving and becoming distant that represents his loneliness, his isolation. “I have walked out in rain- and back in rain. / I have outwalked the furthest city light.” (Frost, 2-3). The reader gains the knowledge of his depression, and can further grasp the concept of his isolation. These metaphors fit the tone of the poem because they are metaphors with a depressing meaning, which follows the sad and dark tone of the
The structure of “Acquainted With the Night” parallels the speaker walking into the dark. The structure is predictable, and flows. The stanzas are set in terza rima, a rhyme scheme that consists of an interlocking three-line rhyme scheme. This rhyme scheme utilizes a chain rhyme with a pattern of A-B-A, B-C-B, C-D-C, D-E-D. This rhyme scheme incorporates looking toward the future while echoing the past.
The poems are based on emotions for example in “We grow accustomed to the dark” and in line “when light is put away” what I think the author means by this is that she does not see the light in much things anymore and she has gotten so used to her depressing emotion that she's used to this. In the “Acquainted with the night” also shows us that the author is sort of in a depressed state of mind and sees it as a companion and from the author's frequent use of “I” in every line we can see that he is alone. While in “Acquainted with the night” we read that there are people in the poem but they do not honestly mean much since the people do not actually interact with the author and in “We grow accustomed to the dark” they mention a neighbor but he
In the poem, “An Old Man’s Winter Night” Robert Frost talks of an old man living in his isolated home. Because of his age, he has trouble remembering where he is and how he got there. Through the use of diction, figurative language, and imagery, Frost accentuates a simple tale of a dying isolated man to reiterate the meaning that it is against human nature to be in isolation and by defying this notion, it causes one to become inhumane and can be the downfall to one’s life. The choice of words in the poem emphasize the old man’s dreariness and separation from humankind.
The tone of despair and loneliness is carried on to the proceeding stanzas, and is more evident in the last two. By saying that “Water limpid as the solitudes that flee
Frost further points out that the stretch of woods being viewed is very rural. This is made possible by the reference to the location between the woods and frozen lake. In closing the final sentence of the second stanza Frost reiterates the fact that this occurs on “the darkest evening of the year” stating the darkness of the mood.
In the second stanza, I see that the speaker wonders about what his horse is “thinking” which shows his interests are also in the outside world too, like his horse. He also takes certain pleasure seeing the scene from what he imagines to be his horse’s perspective. I think his horse is practical in nature, he thinks, while the speaker sits there dreaming, watching the snow fill up the woods. He just stands there dreaming, and thinking about his horse's feelings is the one thing that brings him back to reality. Death comes again in the typical image of night, as we’re told this is the “darkest evening of the year.” Also, it can either be taken literally as the most lightless night, or it can be taken as the night of the darkest emotions. I think that it is a combination of the two, a dark moonless winter night in which the speaker experiences some form of depression or loneliness.
The two poems “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” and “Acquainted with the Night” written by Robert Frost are very similar to each other because of the simplistic form of language used and the uses of metaphors. When we first read the poem, it looks like an ordinary poem but once we go in depth and understand the meaning, it becomes so much more. Both of the poem has a very dark, gloomy and lonely setting with a really mysterious tone. There are different metaphors used in each poem to symbolize death; “Sleep” in “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” and “Night” in “Acquainted with the Night.” The characters in the two poem are both in a journey and has come
Furthermore, this analogy of light and darkness serves as a comparison to the natural transition of the day. First, the sun rises and later the sun sets to allow the moon illuminates the night. In doing so, the poem acquires a transcendentalist aspect not explicitly stated. There is a nature reference embedded into the poetry whereas mental disorder is influenced by. A rationale behind it could be that “accustomed to the Dark” translates into I enjoy being in my room where light does not bother me. It is the speaker’s habituation to stay home and not to socialize outside the boundary of it. Thus, it is a story of confinement reproduced into poetry.
“Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost is about the loneliness and darkness in his own life. Frost uses the woods in the story as a way to portray his current situation in life. In the poem Frost writes, “The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep…” (Lines 13-15). Frost describes the woods as dark and desolate which is a metaphor for how he feels in life. He explains how they are far from town and there isn’t anyone near him. This could mean he keeps himself guarded from others to avoid getting hurt or hurting others. In “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” Frost writes, “Between the woods and frozen lake the darkest evening of the year” ( Lines 7-8). Frost compares a dark evening with the darkness and sadness in his life, saying that right now he is as depressed as he has every been.
Last stanza of the poem talks about the emptiness that is so overwhelming that even when Frost looks up to the sky, all that he could see or feel is still loneliness and emptiness. But then Frost mentions that the emptiness or loneliness that he fears the most isn’t the one that exist on
In the first line of the fourth stanza the speaker says he worries no more of empty and lonely spaces. The word ‘star’ denotes space, but it also connotes to an example of loneliness ‘where no human race is.’ (14) The speaker does not coward anymore of lonely empty spaces, he does not need empty fields covered with formless snow and space filled with loneliness to scare him; it’s already inside of him. The last line of the poem ‘To scare myself with my own desert places,’ (16) contain an image which displays Frost’s thought that fear comes from within oneself rather than without.
The speaker refers to the night as his acquaintance. This implies that the speaker has a lot of experience with the night, but has not become friends with it. Thus, because even the night, which has been alongside the speaker in comparison to anything or anyone else, is not a companion to the speaker, the idea of loneliness is enhanced. In addition, “rain” (2) is used to symbolize the speaker’s feelings of gloom and grief, because there is continuous pouring of the rain, which is unlikely to stop. In line 3, “city light” is used to convey the emotional distance between the speaker and society. Although the speaker has walked extensively, he has not yet interacted with anyone – thus distancing himself even further from society. Moreover, the moon, in lines 11 to 12, is used as a metaphor of the speaker’s feelings. The speaker feels extremely distant from society that he feels “unearthly.” The idea of isolation and loneliness in this poem is used as the theme of the poem; and the use of the setting and metaphors underscores the idea that the speaker feels abandoned from society.
The issue of school prayer has been a thorny one in the United States for many years now. In the beginning of the nineteenth century readings of the Bible and prayer were common practices in public schools. However prayer was banned in 1962 due to claims that it was violating the First Amendment right that the government was not allowed to support religion, and from then on the Supreme Court has ruled against any and all forms of prayer in schools. Schools cannot however ban students from praying in school and it is against the law to deny a student of his or her own personal beliefs. To this day prayers are said at special events such as ballgames, graduations, and the daily moment of silence, but these are sometimes frowned upon because people find public prayer offensive (At Issue: School Prayer). Praying in schools should be allowed for those who want to do it because it should not be about pleasing those who do or don’t have certain beliefs. It should be up to the student to decide whether he or she wants to pray in school.
“Acquainted with the Night” by Robert Frost dramatizes the conflict that the speaker experiences with the outside world, which has rejected him, or perhaps which he has rejected. The poem is composed of fourteen lines and seven sentences, all of which begin with “I have.” Frost’s first and last line, “I have been one acquainted with the night,” emphasizes what it means for the speaker to be “acquainted with the night” (line 1; 14). The speaker describes his walk in the night as journey, in which he has “walked out of rain—and back in rain” and “outwalked the furthest city light” (line 2-3). Through the depiction of the changing weather conditions, Frost signifies the passage of time, perhaps indicating that the narrator has been on his journey for a lengthy period of time and has traveled through many cities. Furthermore, the imagery of the rain at night creates a forlorn atmosphere in the poem.
The night symbolized death, and the walk was the person's journey to find their lost life. This poem was somewhat disturbing to me. I thought of a lost soul, thirsting to finish a mission that was not completed in life. Frost depicts death in a frightening manner with the contents of this piece of work.