Depression's_Hold

Depression’s Hold The poem “Acquainted with the Night” by Robert Frost, dramatizes the conflict the speaker is having between his depression and the shame he feels for something he has done. This is shown specifically in how the conflict relates not in what the speaker says but in what he really means. Although the speaker does not specifically state he is depressed, the images the speaker describes are merely metaphors for his depression. The speaker makes a clear reference to the shame he is feeling when he passes the watchman and says, “And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain” (1.2.6). The speaker is conflicted between fighting the overwhelming depression he feels and the shame that has most likely driven him to this state of mind. This poem is a sonnet written in iambic pentameter with a Terza Rima rhyme scheme following the pattern aba bcb cdc dad aa. It has four stanzas and a couplet. In the first stanza, which comprises three lines, the speaker immediately opens the poem by saying, “I have been one acquainted with the night” (1.1.1). Night is a time of darkness. A person suffering from depression may refer to feeling “dark” when describing his or her emotional state. Acquainted means to know someone or something. Here by the use of metaphor, the speaker is stating that he knows what depression is like because it is the emotional state he is presently in. The first line of this poem sets the tone of the true depth of the speaker’s depressed state of mind. The speaker then sets the scene by saying, “I have walked out in the rain-and back in rain” (1.1.2) providing the image of the speaker walking alone in the rain perhaps so depressed that he is unaware of being uncomfortably wet and cold. The metaphor could also represent the speaker being so depressed that he does not care about his condition. It also may represent his feelings of unworthiness to be kept warm and dry due to the shame he feels for whatever wrongdoing he has committed. This also may represent the speaker feeling alone and overwhelmed by life, unable to escape the bombardment of his own emotions just as he would be unable to escape being completely soaked while walking in a storm. The speaker further shows his depression by saying, “I have outwalked the furthest city light” (1.1.3). Light is often a symbol of hope. The speaker says he has walked beyond the furthest light, which symbolizes his depression being so deep that he has gone beyond having any hope. In the second three-line stanza, the speaker suggests his depression at one point may have been extremely deep when he says, “I have looked down the saddest city lane” (1.2.4). This line seems to correlate with the speaker looking at his life and seeing only sadness as he reflects on his life choices. The speaker’s shame is indicated when he says, “I have passed the watchman on his beat, And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain” (1.2.5-6). Here as the speaker is walking, he can’t even look the watchman in the eyes because he is so conflicted over the shame he holds for whatever it is he has done. The speaker may also be so depressed over his actions that he won’t attempt to make eye contact for fear that he may have to explain the choices he has made and he may feel his life is not worth defending. In the third three-line stanza, the speaker shows the depth of his emotional distance when he says, “I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet” (1.3.7). This line gives the reader the image of the speaker standing still on a busy city street, while people walk all around him. The speaker is so detached from the present that his mind does not allow him to hear the sound of the feet. This detachment also represents the speaker’s feelings of insignificance, for as he stands still, the people around him walk by and don’t even see him. The speaker further says, “When far away an interrupted cry, Came over houses from another street” (1.3.8-9). The physical distance between where the speaker is at and where the cry is coming from is also a metaphor for his emotional distance. The fourth three-line stanza begins with the speaker referencing the cry that was heard in the third stanza. The speaker says, “But not to call me back or say good-by” (1.4.10). It is possible the person that is crying either rejected the speaker or was rejected by the speaker at some point in his life. This line also gives us the indication that the speaker’s shame comes from something that he did specifically to another person and not just for his private actions. Upon hearing the cry, the speaker deeply feels this shame, driving him further into his state of depression. The speaker continues, saying, “And further still at an unearthly height” (1.4.11), which represents his depression further detaching and distancing him from the rest of the world. “Unearthly height”(1.4.11) emphasizes the emotional detachment that the speaker feels while leaving the reader with the feeling that returning to normal might not be possible or that it is out of his reach. The speaker continues, stating, “One luminary clock against the sky” (1.4.12), providing the image of a solitary moon in the sky makes the reader believe the speaker, like the moon, is standing alone and isolated from friends and family. The speaker, deep in his depression, is feeling as though he is small and insignificant compared to the world just as the moon appears small and insignificant against the vastness of the sky. The sky may also be a metaphor for the speaker’s life or for the city. His depression has him trapped and isolated from a world that is continually moving forward while he cannot. The words, “Luminary clock” give the reader the impression that the speaker feels as though his life is like a clock, slowly ticking away just as the moon passes through it’s phases each night until it can not be seen. The first line of the couplet reads, “Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right” (1.5.13), leading the reader to believe that time does not matter and that as the speaker walks through the night; he is not bound by a time frame. It also connects the reader to the speaker’s feelings of insignificance, as time passes by while having no impact on the speaker. The speaker’s depression has left him in a place where time stands still. It draws attention to the idea that the cycle of depression does not have a time frame and that each individual’s level of depression is unique. The final line of the poem restates the first line by saying again, “I have been one acquainted with the night” (1.5.2). Hearing this line repeated draws the reader’s attention to return to the beginning of the poem like a loop with no ending. This is much like the cycle of the reader’s depression that has him caught in what seems to be a never ending loop of emotion. The speaker never seems to move forward or back but remains stuck in depression’s hold.