Acquainted with the Night

Acquainted with the Night

Acquainted with the Night is a poem with one universal theme, depression. The poem has a story that exemplifies a sad and lonely tone. The poems imagery instills lonely yet vivid pictures in the reader. All aspects of the poem aim towards the darkness of handling depression. The poem also creates a space where the reader can begin to analyze it.

The speaker in the poem walks past the furthest city light and looked down the saddest city lane. When he speaks of being the furthest from light refers to his loss of hope. As he looks down the saddest city lane it represents his darkest days and how strong his depression was at some point. This image expresses the speaker's sense of feeling like a wanderer. He is a person who just roams in the night. He implies that he has no where meaningful to go and no one to come back to. The speaker is incapable of interacting with society which is why he has "walked out in the rain - and back in rain. He passes by a watchman and is unable to make eye contact with him. All these examples conclude he can't find his way and has no one in his life.

In this poem, the speaker hears a cry from a nearby street. He mistakes this as an act to catch his attention but soon realizes no one is calling him back or wanting to say goodbye. This is where the reader first understands and sees the sense of loneliness the poem truly portrays. It reveals the speakers emotional distance from civilization. No one cares for how the speaker is feeling; he is sincerely alone on this night. In a sense the reader is one with the darkness of the night.

Language and form also help convey the poems meaning. Frost's seemingly