Acquainted with the Night by Robert

Frost
Here is an analysis of Acquainted with the Night, a poem by Robert Frost. One of the most
popular American poets, Frost wrote over one hundred poems in his lifetime. He won the
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry four times, and he also won the Congressional Gold Medal for his
writing in 1960. Frost eventually settled in the New England area, which inspired his poetry very
much, and the majority of his work reflected the rural atmosphere in which he lived. Frost read
his poem The Gift Outright at President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in 1960. His most
famous poems include The Road Less Traveled and Mending Wall, although many are familiar
with Acquainted with the Night. Frost died in 1963 at the age of 88. He is buried in Bennington,
Vermont.

Summary of Acquainted with the Night

A brief poem, Acquainted with the Night is told from the speaker’s point of view. This speaker could
easily be Frost, especially since the poet dealt with depression in his adult life. In this poem, the speaker
tells his readers that he knows the night well. It is during the night that he has taken many long walks,
even when it has been raining. He has walked past other people, never meeting their gaze because he does
not want to have to explain why he is out walking alone in the middle of the night. The speaker repeats
the first line of the poem as he ends his thoughts, “I have been one acquainted with the night.”

Analysis of Acquainted with the Night

This poem is comprised of five stanzas; the first four stanzas are each three lines, but the fifth
and final stanza only contains two. Acquainted with the Night has a set rhyme scheme, which
follows the pattern aba cdc efe ghg aa. The lilting nature of the rhyme scheme helps to shape the
tone of the poem, which is quite melancholy.

The Title
At first glance, the diction Frost uses in his title is curious. The word acquainted indicates that
the speaker is familiar with the night, but it does not mean that the speaker knows the night well,
nor does it indicate that he particularly likes the night.

First Stanza
In the first line of his poem, which can be read in full here, Frost writes, “I have been one
acquainted with the night.” First, the verb phrase have been must be dissected. It can be argued
that if one has been acquainted with someone, one is no longer acquainted. On the other hand, it
can also be argued that Frost is merely making a declaration to begin his poem: he is one who
knows the night. The word night also conjures several different connotations: it can be the
physical night, or Frost can be talking about something else here, something darker, such as
depression.
Frost follows with two more declarative sentences to end the first stanza. Just like with the word night,
the rain can also serve as a metaphor for something dark. Perhaps the rain the speaker has walked out in
is depression or a difficult time in his life. This line could also be read literally. If one is acquainted with
walking alone at night, one most certainly has walked through rain storms while doing so. The speaker
confesses that he has walked so long and so far that he has walked past where the street lights end. This
stanza suggests several possibilities. First, one must consider why someone would choose to walk in the
middle of the night. For many, the exercise of walking provides clarity. It gives the walker time to think
things through and process certain events of one’s life. Secondly, the stanza suggests that even though
the speaker is surrounded by darkness, he does not seem to be afraid. He keeps walking even when he
knows the street lights will end.

Second Stanza
The second stanza parallels the first in both structure and tone. The poem has an almost
confessional tone to it. The speaker seems to be admitting all of these statements to his
reader. He tells the reader that he has looked down many roads that seem to be sad—perhaps
because it is dark, or perhaps for other reasons, such as poverty. The speaker also informs the
reader that he has passed by a watchman who is patrolling the area in which the speaker is
walking. Instead of stopping to talk to the watchman, the speaker drops his eyes to the ground in
order to avoid conversation. As he says, he is “unwilling to explain” why he is out walking for
seemingly no reason at all. Perhaps he is embarrassed to be walking about so late at night.

Third Stanza
In the third stanza, Frost uses alliteration with the multiple ‘s’ words in the first line of the third
stanza in order to jolt the reader to attention, just as the speaker has been brought out of his own
thoughts to hear the cry from several streets away. The speaker tells the reader that he stopped to
listen, but he does so in a peculiar way. Frost writes, “…stopped the sound of feet.” He does not
use a personal pronoun in this line, which makes the speaker seem removed and apart from
himself.

Fourth Stanza
The fourth stanza continues the thought that was not completed at the end of stanza three. Frost
writes, “But not to call me back or say good-bye;/And further still at an unearthly height/One
luminary clock against the sky.” Here, the loneliness of the speaker is brought to light. He
admits to the reader that the cry from several streets away is not for him. No one is say
goodnight to him, nor are they asking him to come back again; the cry is to someone else. Lines
eleven and twelve are also continued into the final stanza. In these lines, the speaker describes
the moon as a “luminary clock.” Many call the moon the Earth’s oldest timepiece, for based on
its position in the sky, one can estimate what time it is.

Frost concludes his poem with the final two lines that read, “Proclaimed the time was neither
wrong nor right./I have been one acquainted with the night.” Frost personifies the moon in these
final two lines; the moon is not saying either way whether or not it is the wrong time for the
speaker to be walking about. The moon is completely indifferent to what the speaker is doing,
which furthers the theme of loneliness that is prevalent throughout the course of the poem. The
poet ends his poem by using repetition: the last line is a replica of the poem’s first line.

Historical Background
The Frost family was no stranger to mental illness, and unfortunately, Frost also suffered from
bouts of depression. Robert Frost’s life was plagued with a series of unfortunate events, starting
with the death of his father when he was just a young boy. Of his six children, only two lived
longer than he. It is no wonder, then that Frost struggled with depression, and this poem can be
seen as his testimony to struggling through life’s hardest and darkest times.

https://poemanalysis.com/acquainted-with-the-night-robert-frost-poem-analysis/

December 9, 2019

Jamie Jenson
Jamie joined the Poem Analysis team back in November, 2010. He has a passion for poetry and enjoys
analysing and providing interpretations for poetry from the past and present.