Poetry for Students, Volume 35

on his grave marker reads: ‘‘I had a lover’s quar-
rel with the world.’’ Only two of his children
outlived the poet: Irma, who died in 1967, and
Leslie, who died in 1983.

POEM TEXT

I have been one acquainted with the night.

I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.

I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.

I have passed by the watchman on his beat 5

And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet

When far away an interrupted cry

Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-by; 10

And further still at an unearthly height,

One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.

I have been one acquainted with the night.

POEM SUMMARY

Stanza 1
The words of the title repeat in line one and the
first sentence of this poem. The setting and
action are established in the second and third
line. The speaker walks out in rain in the night
beyond the reach of the city lights.

Stanza 2
The speaker’s isolation and sadness are conveyed in
this stanza. He reports looking down sad lanes and
averting his eyes from those of a night watchman.

Stanza 3
In this stanza, the speaker stops walking to hear
more clearly a distant cry that reaches him from
some streets away.

Stanza 4
The cry he hears is not aimed at him. The speaker
is not called back or acknowledged with a fare-
well. The speaker describes a clock against the
night sky. It may be literally a clock in a tower or
the full moon overhead.

Stanza 5
But this clock does not say anything good or bad
about the time. The first line of the poem repeats
as its last line and sentence.

THEMES

Alienation

Frost’s poem describes a frame of mind, a sense

of being alone and withdrawn from human rela-

tionships and social connection. The speaker

walks alone, at night, and toward the unrelieved

darkness beyond streetlights. Though he is not a

criminal, he averts his eyes from the lone night

watchman he passes. The suggestion is made

that he is not the only person who feels discon-

nected from others. The cry that comes across

the lanes suggests another person is suffering

too, is calling out for connection. This cry is

described as broken off, as though it is checked

or muffled. The inference is the one voice that

seeks to communicate is frustrated and does not

elicit a response.

Depression

The speaker’s mood suggests depression, a men-

tal condition characterized by loss of interest,

lack of energy or enthusiasm, a sense of flatness,

and disrupted sleep pattern. A depressed person

is not necessarily sad, but the person is likely to

MEDIA

ADAPTATIONS

In 1956, Frost recorded a number of his poems,

including ‘‘Mending Wall,’’ ‘‘Death of a Hired

Man,’’ ‘‘After Apple-Picking,’’ ‘‘Birches,’’ and

‘‘West-running Brook.’’ The recording was pro-

duced by HarperAudio and is available online.

Robert Frost Out Loudincludes the poet

readingA Boy’s Will,North of Boston, and

Mountain Interval. These recordings are

available online.

Various DVDs are available featuring work

by Robert Frost. For example, in 2006, Mon-

terey Video producedRobert Frost: New

England in Autumn, a twenty-nine-minute

film featuring photographs of Massachusetts

accompanied by readings of such poems as

‘‘Tree at my Window,’’ ‘‘The Pasture,’’ and

‘‘The Cow in Apple Time.’’

Acquainted with the Night