Emily Dickinson's poem "Accustomed to the Dark" explores overcoming challenges with a contemplative and accepting tone. While Robert Frost's "Acquainted with the Night" illustrates the idea of loneliness and isolation through images and a gloomy, reflective tone. Emily Dickinson uses a contemplative and accepting tone to argue the theme of adjusting to difficult or painful experiences in "Accustomed to the Dark." At the same time, Frost employs a gloomy, reflective tone in "Acquainted with the Night" to portray the theme of loneliness, isolation, and disconnection.
In Emily Dickinson’s “Accustomed to the Dark,” she uses figurative language to develop a contemplative tone that describes the challenge of facing and adapting to new struggles in our lives. For instance, she uses the metaphor of growing, “Accustomed to the Dark,” using the dark as a metaphor for painful experiences and struggles in one's life. The imagery used in this poem further shows the contemplative tone that describes this challenge. The speaker, “meet[s] the Road — erect —” is evocative of a dark road at night, which is
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In "Acquainted with the Night," the speaker is described as being "one acquainted with the night," implying a sense of solitude and detachment. This sense of isolation is reinforced by the use of the repetition of the phrase "I have been." Additionally, concrete imagery, such as "the city's chaotic tolls" and "the lamps that frown," helps to create a sense of hopelessness and detachment. The last line of the poem, "I have been one acquainted with the night" suggests that the speaker has a deep understanding of the darkness and loneliness that comes with