Acquainted_with_the_Night

Some people would say the greatest thing in life is to belong, it is a fundamental need in humans, the impulse to form partnerships, but some do not have this privilege. Acquainted with the Night by Robert Frost has influenced my own understanding of not belonging and the value of belonging. Frost begins the poem with ‘I have been one acquainted with the nigh’ and ends the poem with ‘I have been one acquainted with the nigh’, this emphasise that the persona is familiarized with the dark, the gloom, the fear, and most of all the loneliness of the night hours and will continue to be alone, through the repetition of these lines. Throughout the poem Frost uses an agglomeration of disconsolate dictions such as rain, outwalked, saddest, dropped, stood still, stoped and even cry. All of these words create an apathetic tone from which the theme not belonging and isolation is axiomatic. The persona’s sombre words as well as constant repetition of ‘I’ illustrates that the persona is constantly focusing on himself and the currant state of mind of not belonging that he is in and portrays that he is both physically and emotionally alienated. This idea is further explored through the line, ‘I have walked out in rain - and back in rain’ allegorizes that the outward weather has not changed along with the inward weather of his soul. His tears have not been dried but continue to fall as relentlessly as the rain outside, lashing his soul as the rain whips his body. In addition to the dejecting diction, Frost repeats the phrase ‘I have’ several times throughout the poem. This repetition enforces the persona’s ‘matter of factness’ and reassurance that he doesn’t belong. The phrase is also repeated which creates interest because when paired with his grave diction it gives the sense to the reader that the persona feels that he does not belonging because of the situation ‘I have outwalked the furthest city light. I have looked down the saddest city lane.’ Yet also he is well aware that he is and knows that there isn’t anything that he can do about it and that he has accepted the fact that he will live alone. Frost uses his heavy visual to set up sombre lonely environment for the reader for example, sets up the sad, rainy location and the reader pictures the persona walking by themselves in the cold rain and dark ally way. This location is where it would be expected to find a person who feels that they don’t belong and feel sorry for themselves in not doing so. In addiction to this while we know that the character is physically alone as shown by the line ‘I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet’ the speaker is not the only person in the poem. In fact the speaker makes reference to another voice calling over roof tops although this voice isn’t calling him but rather someone else. He also makes reference to a watchman patrolling the streets who looks at him but instead of speaker talking to the man he only lowers his eyes and walks away. The scene in the poem is a city and city’s are usually full of people, despite the fact that there are people in the poem other than the main character the persona will rather be alone and be by him self accepting this fact. This creates a sense of irony seeing the main character feeling of loneliness despite being around people in the city. This irony helps show the state of mind that the character is in, for it shows that he is deeply depressed by himself and the situation he is in within the world yet he doesn’t make any attempt to try and change it, he has given up and accepted the fact that he will be alone. The structure of the poem is written in terza rima a three-line stanza using chain rhyme in the pattern A-B-A, B-C-B, C-D-C with the ending d-e-d, e-e. This rhyming pattern has been used as it shows the disconnection that the persona feels yet the repetition of the same rhyme shows that he has accepted that he doesn’t belong. ‘Acquainted with the Night’ by Robert Frost, has broadened my understanding of belonging and not belonging through its use of language.