neither wrong nor right’’ (12–13). While writing
in a terza rima sonnet, the speaker fractures the
traditional thematic break in a sonnet very much
like the speaker in ‘‘The Road Not Taken,’’ who
chooses the path ‘‘less traveled by’’ (19).
By the third tercet, the speaker is near the
city limits, where he can still hear ‘‘an interrupted
cry’’ (8) that comes ‘‘over houses from another
street’’ (9). As the speaker tries out the limits of
conventional symbols and form he realizes that
cry he hears is ‘‘not to call [him] back or say
good-by’’ (10). In short, the speaker comes to
the realization that there is no one, not even the
watchman, to prevent him exploring new possi-
bilities in poetry. Indeed, the watchman in the
second tercet does not question the speaker as he
passes by. An alienation that the speaker must
experience to create new, artistic poetry is
emphasized through the images of deserted
streets, distant houses, and the darkness that
envelopes the whole civilization in the octave.
This isolation is heightened by the moon: ‘‘And
further still at an unearthly height / One lumi-
nary clock against the sky / Proclaimed the time
was neither wrong nor right’’ (11–13). In observ-
ing the moon, the speaker realizes that there is no
right time to create a new poem.
That creating a new poem is a continual trial
and error is enhanced by the seven present-
perfect-tense statements that ‘‘Acquainted with
the Night’’ contains. The speaker explored the
unknown territory in the past, and though he
has come back to the familiar territory, he con-
tinues to go back to the unknown. In this sense,
the use of terza rima in this sonnet is appropri-
ate: the interlocking rhyme scheme gives the
sense of continuation to the readers. However,
the speaker cannot resist experimenting with
the traditional rhyme scheme. Although the
readers would expect the traditional terza rima
of the aba bcb cdc ded ee rhyme, ‘‘Acquainted
with the Night’’ rhymes aba bcb cdc dad aa,
making a circular structure by repeating the
opening line of the poem at the end: ‘‘I have
been one acquainted with the night’’ (1, 14).
This circular structure of the poem, again,
enhances the continuous nature of creating a
new poem.
Robert Frost is quoted as saying in 1962 in
his talk titled ‘‘On Extravagance’’ that many of
his poems have ‘‘literary criticism in them—in
them’’ (Poirier 86; emphasis in original).
Frost’s literary criticism in ‘‘Acquainted with
the Night,’’ then, might be directed toward his
contemporary poets, who in modernizing
poetry, strayed away from the closed-form
poetry. Written at the height of the American
modernist movement in 1928, ‘‘Acquainted
with the Night’’ stresses the importance of
pushing the boundaries and exploring the
unknown, while remaining within the limits
of accepted tradition.
Source:Kyoko Amano, ‘‘Frost’s ‘Acquainted with the
Night,’’’ inExplicator,Vol.65,No.1,Fall2006,
pp. 39–42.Keat Murray
In the following essay, Murray offers an interpre-
tation using archetypes to explore the thinking
process of the narrator of the poem.
Robert Frost once said, ‘‘I like anything that
penetrates the mysteries. And if it penetrates
straight to hell, then that’s all right, too’’ (Frost,
266). This statement underscores a mainstay of
Frost’s poetry: he places the careful reader in
direct, candid confrontation with mysteries,
such as those of human conscience, of philosoph-
ical barricades and corridors, and of our mythical
depths. In ‘‘Acquainted with the Night,’’ Frost
compounds all of these into a tightly structured
poem depicting a modern mythological con-
sciousness amid effusions of guilt, loneliness,
and a desire for self-perpetuating vision. Frost’s
persona imaginatively enacts an attempt to pene-
trate the mystery of his own nature. Framing a
portrait of a modern mind, the process of the
enactment taps into vital archetypal associations
and opens the poem for a reading that incorpo-
rates observations by Carl Jung and Joseph
Campbell.
The first two stanzas perspicuously establish
a few things that will be developed as the poem
continues:FROST, IN EFFECT, SIMULATES IN THE
PERSONA OUR EXPERIENCE IN READING THE POEM.
AND WE ENCOUNTER OUR OWN WATCHMAN AND
EXPERIENCE A MODERN CREATION MYTH IN
ARTISTIC FORM.’’Acquainted with the Night