I Have Been One Acquainted With The Night Analysis Essay

Robert Frost's “I have been one acquainted with the night” suggests through its sonnet form a theme of death and depression. Robert Frost uses structure to illuminate this theme. Through poetic devices and figurative language it establishes a sense of loneliness. This short poem is about a man feeling the sensation of isolation. Just like any English sonnet this poem has stanzas, but it is diffrent. Instead of four lines in one stanza it has three which is difficult to do for an English poem. The first stanza introduces the man in the “night” walking in “rain,” suggesting a depressing setting (1,2). The second and third stanza gives more detail of what he has been going through during the night. The man “looked down the saddest city lane and “passed” a watch man “unwilling” to explain, this illustrates him searching for something he is ashamed of (4,5,6). After these stanzas Robert ends the poem with a volta and couplet explaining how time “was neither wrong nor right” (13). The structure of this poem helps identify the setting and meaning.

Frosts uses personification such as “sound of feet” to make the poem more dramatic while sustaining the sad theme (7). The use of poetic devices helps poets describe what is happening without directly telling the readers. Another example of personification is when the man looked down the “saddest city lane” which means the speaker of the poem is so sad that even the streets seem sad to him (4). This street had no people meaning he is lonely. The moon "proclaimed the time," but in reality the moon cannot proclaim anything (13). The watchman is a symbol for common sense. The narrator feels some guilt when seeing him and "dropped [his] eyes, unwilling to explain" (6). The feeling of guilt may explain why the narrator feels isolated and depressed. Without poetic devices the meaning of the poem would drastically