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Question: How would you analyze the poem "Acquainted With the Night" by Robert Frost!?
I'm teaching this poem to my English 4U class, and was wondering about the differing opinions of the meaning of this poem!. also, it would help if you had any information on the verse form, figurative language and sound devices!. And I'm not just being lazy, I just want input about how others view this piece, I already have a lot of research on it!.

Acquainted with the Night
by: Robert Frost

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
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-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
O luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right!.
I have been one acquainted with the night!. Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
This poem is a variation on the Spenserian sonnet, with 4 three-line stanzas and a couplet to make up the 14 lines!. The tricky rhyme scheme I think is more than a little responsible for its wording and meaning!. After the first stanza, each 3-line stanza has the first and last lines rhyme with the middle line in the preceding stanza - until the last, which is a 2-line stanza with both lines rhyming with the middle line of the preceding stanza, With this rhyming restriction on it, I think this poem is lucky to have remained on the same subject throughout!. I think it is simply a song of the loneliness of walking at night in a city, passing a watchman, hearing an unexplained cry, observing a clock on a tower with some peculiarity about it that suggested it might show the correct or incorrect time!. But the significance of it all is to give the feeling of the loneliness of walking in a city in the night!. The rhythms of the lines are elegant and I think a little reminiscent of TSE!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

It seems to me that this person likes to go out at night to observe the city around him!. Maybe he wants to relieve the tension found in the city in the day-or just to be alone for awhile!. The furthest city light-he goes beyond the city limits, the saddest city lane--the poor side of town!? luminary clock against the sky--either a city clock like Big Ben or the moon; when it sets, another day will soon beginWww@QuestionHome@Com

Look, if either of you other answerers knew anything about Frost, you would know that this is not one of his simple poems!. And even if you didn't, the night is obviously a metaphor for depression or darkness (and I DON'T mean lack of light)!.
Sorry for the crankiness!. It's three in the morning, and I should be in bed!.Www@QuestionHome@Com