Critical Analysis
"With its conventional symbol of the "night" in the title, opening line, and the concluding line, Frost's "Acquainted with the Night" invites its readers to examine death and grief expressed in the poem. Yet the "night" should not be taken as a conventional symbol; rather, the darkness of the night represents the symbols, form, and structure of a poem that no other poet has explored in the past. Whereas the "city" and its "light" in line 3 represent civilized society or traditional poetry, the darkness of the "night" in this poem represents the kind of poems and its poetic devices that the speaker's predecessors have not yet explored. Thus, "I have been one acquainted with the night" in the opening and concluding lines, as well as "I have outwalked the furthest city light" (3), express that the speaker-poet has experimented with new techniques. However, the speaker-poet has written experimental poems only on occasion, for he claims, "I have walked out in rain--and back in rain" (2). The speaker implies that he has always come back to traditional poetry.
Whereas the first stanza of the poem presents the speaker as an experimental poet, the second stanza presents a slightly different side of the speaker. In the second stanza, consisting of two complete sentences, the speaker-poet calls the city lane, or traditional poetry, "the saddest" (4). While exploring the unknown territory, the speaker poet has "passed by the watchman on his beat" (5), but he could not meet the watchman's eyes and says, "And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain" (6). This watchman is the only other human character in the poem, but the speaker avoids human contact.
In addition to the symbols of "Acquainted with the Night," the form of this poem enhances Poirier's suggestion that Frost's poem is often about the creative process. Although the speaker is straying away from poetic tradition, he is not completely out of its limits. "Acquainted with the Night" is written in a terza rima sonnet, using four tercets of an interlocking three-line rhyme scheme. In a Petrarchan sonnet, the natural thematic break often comes between the first eight lines, octave, and the concluding six lines, sestet.In a Shakespearean sonnet, the thematic break is frequently after three quatrains and right before the concluding couplet. However, in "Acquainted with theNight," the break comes prematurely at the end of the first two tercets. The first sestet relies on the speaker's motion, such as "walked" (2), "outwalked" (3), and "passed" (5); in the last octave, the speaker stops and ponders: "I have stood still" (7). The first two stanzas consist of five complete sentences, whereas the last three stanzas have only two complete sentences--one expanding from line 7 to line 13, and the other on line 14. Unlike a Shakespearean sonnet, there is no break right before the concluding couplet because line 12 serves as the subject of line 13: "One luminary clock against the sky / Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right" (12-13). While writing in a terza rima sonnet, the speaker fractures the traditional thematic break in a sonnet very much like the speaker in "The Road Not Taken," who chooses the path "less traveled by" (19).
By the third tercet, the speaker is near the city limits, where he can still hear "an interrupted cry" (8) that comes "over houses from another street" (9). As the speaker tries out the limits of conventional symbols and form, he realizes that the cry he hears is "not to call [him] back or say good-by" (10). In short, the speaker comes to the realization that there is no one, not even the watchman, to prevent him from exploring new possibilities in poetry. Indeed, the watchman in the second tercet does not question the speaker as he passes by. An alienation that the speaker must experience to create new, artistic poetry is emphasized through the images of deserted streets, distant houses, and the darkness that envelopes the whole civilization in the octave. This isolation is heightened by the moon: "And further still at an unearthly height / One luminary clock against the sky / Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right" (11-13). In observing the moon, the speaker realizes that there is no right time
to create a new poem."
-KYOKO AMANO
MY RESPONSE
I agree with this analysis, for the most part, but i disagree on a fundamental level. I don't believe the poem is specifically about experimenting in poetry. I don't believe Frost wanted to have the poem be so simple-minded. Perhaps the main point of the poem is to explore experimental poetry, but i believe that it can be expanded to any type of exploration.
Critical Analysis
"ROBERT FROST ONCE said, "I like anything that penetrates the mysteries. And if it penetrates straight to hell, then that's all right, too" (Frost, 266). This statement underscores a mainstay of Frost's poetry: he places the careful reader in direct, candid confrontation with mysteries, such as those of human conscience, of philosophical barricades and corridors, and of our mythical depths. In "Acquainted with the Night," Frost compounds all of these into a tightly structured poem depicting a modern mythological consciousness amid effusions of guilt, loneliness, and a desire for self-perpetuating vision. Frost's persona imaginatively enacts an attempt to penetrate the mystery of his own nature. Framing a portrait of a modern mind, the process of the enactment taps into vital archetypal associations and opens the poem for a reading that incorporates observations by Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell.
The first stanza is composed of three end-stopped lines that are dependent on the others. Commencing the poem with what will develop into its intrinsic ideas, the three lines summon three archetypes, or symbols of things indigenous to our human condition. Night (darkness), rain (water), and light promptly add deep dimensions to the poem. Similar to Dante's use of terza rima, Frost's first tercet provides a trinity of its own. Evocative, familiar, yet magically unsettling, these archetypes present a universal human experience for the reader. From these archetypes the poem springs toward the "spiritual synthesis" (Cirlot, 222) signified by the number three.
The first line sets an inescapable mood and aligns the reader with a mythical conception of consciousness. The present-perfect tense indicates that the persona's acquaintance with the night began in the past and continues into the present. In accord with the archetypal night, his acquaintance is immemorial and ongoing, having no stated beginning nor a projected end.His frame of mind is further described by the word "acquainted," which literally frames the poem in lines one and fourteen. The word conveys a sense of familiarity, a recognition, and a slight indifference, but not a complete affinity. The persona's conception of the night is ambivalent. In the beginning of the poem, he views himself as somewhat detached from night, yet at the same time lured toward it as a suitable place for his loneliness. His acquaintance, as acquaintances are, lacks a clear identification with the night but also urges him to explore it, else he would not go beyond "the furthest city light" (Frost, 3). Whether he seeks to alleviate his loneliness or to feel "solid lonesomeness" for the solitude of "listening to stillness" (Twain, 97), we do not know. The night, a mystery to be penetrated, can paradoxically comfort him either way.
The persona willingly removes himself from the concrete forms of a modern city and releases himself to artistic forms, through which he confronts the chief forces of archetypal creation. In this visionary poem, he poses in the role of God, as a Creator. In the cosmogonies of many cultural mythologies, the creation of the universe begins with a God-figure working among the three elements of darkness, water, and light. The first stanza swiftly summons the three elements and does so in the same succession as the creation myths. First, all is a primeval darkness, formless and vague. Second, water accompanies the darkness, as a prescience of the coming of life. Third, the God-figure produces light in contrast to the vast chaos; thus, the primordial confusion is wrought into a semblance of order. The two forces conjoin, alternating in a perpetual and self-fulfilling cycle that is represented in the symbol of yin-yang. The persona's venture into the darkness, water, and light parallels that of the Creator. But Frost's narrator does not create the natural world, rather he sees the natural world within himself. The parallels between the creation of the cosmos and the creation of the persona's poem culminate in the awakening of consciousness from the unconscious state, from darkness into light. Yet as the poem continues, the persona moves beyond light and seeks revelation in the darkness rather than being repulsed by its density and ambiguity.
The persona hesitates as he walks into the rain, as the dash preceding "and back in rain" (Frost, g) implies. But why is he hesitant and reticent? Perhaps it is the fear of discerning little or nothing in the rainy night. But despite this, he yearns for an approachable order that societal institutions (the watchman in line five), constructions (city), and conventions cannot offer and have not fulfilled. He unwittingly turns to universal archetypes; ironically, the mythological night can fulfill what in him has been emptied. But what, we may ask, is left for this man to ponder as he leaves the furthest city light behind him? It is his own consciousness within the stream of the collective, mythical mind. At this point, the archetype of darkness, water, and light tint the poem with universal force in the form of the persona's microcosmic creation. Frost links the consciousness of the persona with that of God, the being who originally had only Himself to ponder before creating His new self-expression. In simpler terms, the persona had been compelled to ponder himself and his imagination before creating his poetic form. The present perfect tense of "I have," then, strongly implies that the persona continues, even after the poem, to engage in this process of reflecting upon himself and his spiritual potential. In short, by summoning the images of creation myth, the persona sustains a part in a rite, or 'an organization of mythological symbols.'"
-Keat Murray
MY RESPONSE
I believe that my opinion can be expanded with the opinion of Murray. He talks about how the speaker is hesitant of the night. If one would synthesize our two ideas together, he is afraid of adventuring. He wants to, but he wants the order that staying the same will provide.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Headnote FORM AND CONTENT, CONTENT AND FORMIN A GREAT POEM, THE TWO GO HAND IN HAND
Robert Frost is famous for his poems about the landscape of New England and the kind of life its inhabitants led, written in simple, accessible language. However, this rather traditional poet, who eschewed the new and popular poetic forms of his times, often wrote dark, existential poems on universal themes. "Acquainted With the Night," a poem of loneliness (and aloneness), is a terza rima sonnet (don't worry-we'll get to that in a minute) which complements the theme in a number of ways.
THE CONTENT
Form is important, but it alone does not make a great poem. The poem has to be about something; it needs a theme. How do you figure out the theme? Start by looking at several elements of the poem: imagery and storyline.
This poem tells of a person who walks alone, at night. This is a lonely image. Much of the imagery in the poem is dark, both literally (the night) and figuratively ("saddest city lane"), and lonely (hearing a call that is for someone else). The final (new) image of the poem is of a "luminary clock" at an "unearthly height, " also known as the moon. This clock "proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right," which seems to imply that the narrator, while walking (a pensive activity), is actually searching for answers (otherwise, why would he comment on the moon's lack of answers?). It would seem that the isolated narrator is out searching, perhaps trying to figure out where he belongs in the world.
FORM AND CONTENT
What does the form have to do with this? It supports the issue of the loneliness and isolation of soul-searching. Sonnets are usually written in quatrains (groups of four lines), or with no space between the lines at all. Because Frost uses tercets, the stanzas look isolated; there is more white space on the page (and in the poem), which contributes to the reader's experience of isolation. The final couplet looks even more lonely than the tercets did, with all that white space and the lack of a third line. It is a very effective way to end a poem about loneliness.
Rhyme scheme and repetition contribute subtly to theme by adding an element of frustration to the idea of searching. The rhyme scheme starts off well (aba, bcb, cdc), but then it goes back to the beginning (dad, aa), which implies that the narrator is back where he started. The repetition of the first line as the last does the same thing, leaving the reader with the sense that the search must continue.
MY RESPONSE
I agree with this opinion. The author believe that Frost was trying to portray a much darker theme than what I thought, but after reading this i agree that perhaps the poem is darker than it was on first look.
Whereas the first stanza of the poem presents the speaker as an experimental poet, the second stanza presents a slightly different side of the speaker. In the second stanza, consisting of two complete sentences, the speaker-poet calls the city lane, or traditional poetry, "the saddest" (4). While exploring the unknown territory, the speaker poet has "passed by the watchman on his beat" (5), but he could not meet the watchman's eyes and says, "And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain" (6). This watchman is the only other human character in the poem, but the speaker avoids human contact.
In addition to the symbols of "Acquainted with the Night," the form of this poem enhances Poirier's suggestion that Frost's poem is often about the creative process. Although the speaker is straying away from poetic tradition, he is not completely out of its limits. "Acquainted with the Night" is written in a terza rima sonnet, using four tercets of an interlocking three-line rhyme scheme. In a Petrarchan sonnet, the natural thematic break often comes between the first eight lines, octave, and the concluding six lines, sestet.In a Shakespearean sonnet, the thematic break is frequently after three quatrains and right before the concluding couplet. However, in "Acquainted with theNight," the break comes prematurely at the end of the first two tercets. The first sestet relies on the speaker's motion, such as "walked" (2), "outwalked" (3), and "passed" (5); in the last octave, the speaker stops and ponders: "I have stood still" (7). The first two stanzas consist of five complete sentences, whereas the last three stanzas have only two complete sentences--one expanding from line 7 to line 13, and the other on line 14. Unlike a Shakespearean sonnet, there is no break right before the concluding couplet because line 12 serves as the subject of line 13: "One luminary clock against the sky / Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right" (12-13). While writing in a terza rima sonnet, the speaker fractures the traditional thematic break in a sonnet very much like the speaker in "The Road Not Taken," who chooses the path "less traveled by" (19).
By the third tercet, the speaker is near the city limits, where he can still hear "an interrupted cry" (8) that comes "over houses from another street" (9). As the speaker tries out the limits of conventional symbols and form, he realizes that the cry he hears is "not to call [him] back or say good-by" (10). In short, the speaker comes to the realization that there is no one, not even the watchman, to prevent him from exploring new possibilities in poetry. Indeed, the watchman in the second tercet does not question the speaker as he passes by. An alienation that the speaker must experience to create new, artistic poetry is emphasized through the images of deserted streets, distant houses, and the darkness that envelopes the whole civilization in the octave. This isolation is heightened by the moon: "And further still at an unearthly height / One luminary clock against the sky / Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right" (11-13). In observing the moon, the speaker realizes that there is no right time
to create a new poem."
-KYOKO AMANO
MY RESPONSE
I agree with this analysis, for the most part, but i disagree on a fundamental level. I don't believe the poem is specifically about experimenting in poetry. I don't believe Frost wanted to have the poem be so simple-minded. Perhaps the main point of the poem is to explore experimental poetry, but i believe that it can be expanded to any type of exploration.
Critical Analysis
"ROBERT FROST ONCE said, "I like anything that penetrates the mysteries. And if it penetrates straight to hell, then that's all right, too" (Frost, 266). This statement underscores a mainstay of Frost's poetry: he places the careful reader in direct, candid confrontation with mysteries, such as those of human conscience, of philosophical barricades and corridors, and of our mythical depths. In "Acquainted with the Night," Frost compounds all of these into a tightly structured poem depicting a modern mythological consciousness amid effusions of guilt, loneliness, and a desire for self-perpetuating vision. Frost's persona imaginatively enacts an attempt to penetrate the mystery of his own nature. Framing a portrait of a modern mind, the process of the enactment taps into vital archetypal associations and opens the poem for a reading that incorporates observations by Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell.
The first stanza is composed of three end-stopped lines that are dependent on the others. Commencing the poem with what will develop into its intrinsic ideas, the three lines summon three archetypes, or symbols of things indigenous to our human condition. Night (darkness), rain (water), and light promptly add deep dimensions to the poem. Similar to Dante's use of terza rima, Frost's first tercet provides a trinity of its own. Evocative, familiar, yet magically unsettling, these archetypes present a universal human experience for the reader. From these archetypes the poem springs toward the "spiritual synthesis" (Cirlot, 222) signified by the number three.
The first line sets an inescapable mood and aligns the reader with a mythical conception of consciousness. The present-perfect tense indicates that the persona's acquaintance with the night began in the past and continues into the present. In accord with the archetypal night, his acquaintance is immemorial and ongoing, having no stated beginning nor a projected end.His frame of mind is further described by the word "acquainted," which literally frames the poem in lines one and fourteen. The word conveys a sense of familiarity, a recognition, and a slight indifference, but not a complete affinity. The persona's conception of the night is ambivalent. In the beginning of the poem, he views himself as somewhat detached from night, yet at the same time lured toward it as a suitable place for his loneliness. His acquaintance, as acquaintances are, lacks a clear identification with the night but also urges him to explore it, else he would not go beyond "the furthest city light" (Frost, 3). Whether he seeks to alleviate his loneliness or to feel "solid lonesomeness" for the solitude of "listening to stillness" (Twain, 97), we do not know. The night, a mystery to be penetrated, can paradoxically comfort him either way.
The persona willingly removes himself from the concrete forms of a modern city and releases himself to artistic forms, through which he confronts the chief forces of archetypal creation. In this visionary poem, he poses in the role of God, as a Creator. In the cosmogonies of many cultural mythologies, the creation of the universe begins with a God-figure working among the three elements of darkness, water, and light. The first stanza swiftly summons the three elements and does so in the same succession as the creation myths. First, all is a primeval darkness, formless and vague. Second, water accompanies the darkness, as a prescience of the coming of life. Third, the God-figure produces light in contrast to the vast chaos; thus, the primordial confusion is wrought into a semblance of order. The two forces conjoin, alternating in a perpetual and self-fulfilling cycle that is represented in the symbol of yin-yang. The persona's venture into the darkness, water, and light parallels that of the Creator. But Frost's narrator does not create the natural world, rather he sees the natural world within himself. The parallels between the creation of the cosmos and the creation of the persona's poem culminate in the awakening of consciousness from the unconscious state, from darkness into light. Yet as the poem continues, the persona moves beyond light and seeks revelation in the darkness rather than being repulsed by its density and ambiguity.
The persona hesitates as he walks into the rain, as the dash preceding "and back in rain" (Frost, g) implies. But why is he hesitant and reticent? Perhaps it is the fear of discerning little or nothing in the rainy night. But despite this, he yearns for an approachable order that societal institutions (the watchman in line five), constructions (city), and conventions cannot offer and have not fulfilled. He unwittingly turns to universal archetypes; ironically, the mythological night can fulfill what in him has been emptied. But what, we may ask, is left for this man to ponder as he leaves the furthest city light behind him? It is his own consciousness within the stream of the collective, mythical mind. At this point, the archetype of darkness, water, and light tint the poem with universal force in the form of the persona's microcosmic creation. Frost links the consciousness of the persona with that of God, the being who originally had only Himself to ponder before creating His new self-expression. In simpler terms, the persona had been compelled to ponder himself and his imagination before creating his poetic form. The present perfect tense of "I have," then, strongly implies that the persona continues, even after the poem, to engage in this process of reflecting upon himself and his spiritual potential. In short, by summoning the images of creation myth, the persona sustains a part in a rite, or 'an organization of mythological symbols.'"
-Keat Murray
MY RESPONSE
I believe that my opinion can be expanded with the opinion of Murray. He talks about how the speaker is hesitant of the night. If one would synthesize our two ideas together, he is afraid of adventuring. He wants to, but he wants the order that staying the same will provide.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Headnote FORM AND CONTENT, CONTENT AND FORMIN A GREAT POEM, THE TWO GO HAND IN HAND
Robert Frost is famous for his poems about the landscape of New England and the kind of life its inhabitants led, written in simple, accessible language. However, this rather traditional poet, who eschewed the new and popular poetic forms of his times, often wrote dark, existential poems on universal themes. "Acquainted With the Night," a poem of loneliness (and aloneness), is a terza rima sonnet (don't worry-we'll get to that in a minute) which complements the theme in a number of ways.
THE CONTENT
Form is important, but it alone does not make a great poem. The poem has to be about something; it needs a theme. How do you figure out the theme? Start by looking at several elements of the poem: imagery and storyline.
This poem tells of a person who walks alone, at night. This is a lonely image. Much of the imagery in the poem is dark, both literally (the night) and figuratively ("saddest city lane"), and lonely (hearing a call that is for someone else). The final (new) image of the poem is of a "luminary clock" at an "unearthly height, " also known as the moon. This clock "proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right," which seems to imply that the narrator, while walking (a pensive activity), is actually searching for answers (otherwise, why would he comment on the moon's lack of answers?). It would seem that the isolated narrator is out searching, perhaps trying to figure out where he belongs in the world.
FORM AND CONTENT
What does the form have to do with this? It supports the issue of the loneliness and isolation of soul-searching. Sonnets are usually written in quatrains (groups of four lines), or with no space between the lines at all. Because Frost uses tercets, the stanzas look isolated; there is more white space on the page (and in the poem), which contributes to the reader's experience of isolation. The final couplet looks even more lonely than the tercets did, with all that white space and the lack of a third line. It is a very effective way to end a poem about loneliness.
Rhyme scheme and repetition contribute subtly to theme by adding an element of frustration to the idea of searching. The rhyme scheme starts off well (aba, bcb, cdc), but then it goes back to the beginning (dad, aa), which implies that the narrator is back where he started. The repetition of the first line as the last does the same thing, leaving the reader with the sense that the search must continue.
MY RESPONSE
I agree with this opinion. The author believe that Frost was trying to portray a much darker theme than what I thought, but after reading this i agree that perhaps the poem is darker than it was on first look.