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The Full Text of “Acquainted with the Night”
1I have been one acquainted with the night.
2I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.
3I have outwalked the furthest city light.
4I have looked down the saddest city lane.
5I have passed by the watchman on his beat
6And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.
7I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
8When far away an interrupted cry
9Came over houses from another street,
10But not to call me back or say good-bye;
11And further still at an unearthly height,
12One luminary clock against the sky
13Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
14I have been one acquainted with the night.
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“Acquainted with the Night” Introduction
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The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Robert Frost first published "Acquainted with the Night" in 1927. One of Frost's most celebrated poems, "Acquainted with the Night" is an exploration of isolation, sorrow, and despair—emotions that, to the poem's speaker, feel as inescapable as the night itself. These emotions, Frost suggests, are a universal part of the human experience. The 14-line poem is a terza rima sonnet, consisting of four tercets and a final rhyming couplet. The second line of each tercet provides the rhyme sound for the first and third lines of the following stanza (aba, bcb, cdc, and so on).
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“Acquainted with the Night” Summary
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The speaker declares that they've known the night. It was raining when the speaker began a walk across the city, and it was still raining at the end of the walk. During the walk, the speaker progressed beyond even the outermost light of the city.
The speaker looked into the most desolate city street. The speaker also passed by a watchman patrolling the city. The speaker, however, looked down to avoid eye contact with the watchman, not wanting to talk about the reasons behind the speaker's nighttime walk.
During the walk, the speaker stopped moving upon hearing a distant, broken-off cry. The sound of this other human's voice traveled across houses from a different street.
However, the voice did not call the speaker to come back or bid the speaker farewell. Even more distant and higher up, the moon shone like a bright clock in the sky.
This metaphorical clock declares that the time was not wrong or right. The speaker again says that they have known the night.
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“Acquainted with the Night” Themes
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Isolation, Sorrow, and Despair
The speaker of Robert Frost's “Acquainted with the Night” describes a lonely nighttime walk throughout a city. During this aimless wandering, the speaker grapples with a sense of overwhelming despair that seems to cut the speaker off from the world that surrounds them. The poem suggests that sorrow and isolation go hand-in-hand in a kind of self-perpetuating cycle. They can at times feel utterly inescapable—like walking through an endless night.
The physical details of the city at night reflect the speaker’s mood. The speaker is “one acquainted with the night.” The night is generally associated with darkness, which, in turn, is associated with suffering and despair. Thus, the speaker’s familiarity with the “night” is also symbolic of the speaker’s familiarity with these particular emotions. Furthermore, given the sense of isolation that pervades the poem, “acquainted” is used ironically to imply that the only thing the speaker is connected to is disconnection itself. Additionally, the speaker begins and ends this walk in “rain.” Rain is often associated with sorrow, with raindrops often representing human tears. Therefore, the physical rain that surrounds the speaker is a reflection of the speaker’s sorrow.
As the speaker continues walking, the darkness and sorrow of the surroundings intensify. The speaker walks beyond even the “furthest city light,” thus sinking further into physical darkness. In a similar vein, the speaker characterizes the “city lane” they look into as the “saddest.” The use of superlatives—"furthest” and “saddest”—reflects the heightening of the speaker’s emotions. Indeed, the speaker’s despair and sorrow seem never-ending; although the speaker continues to progress on the walk, the speaker doesn’t actually go anywhere on a figurative and emotional level. This sense of despair and sorrow is inescapable, like the night itself.
What's more, the speaker’s feelings of suffering and despair prevent the speaker from finding solace in any companionship and preserve a state of isolation. The speaker has deliberately walked beyond “the furthest city light” and is thus on the outskirts of the city. The speaker is thus unlikely to encounter another human being to keep company with. However, even when the speaker encounters a “watchman” patrolling the city, the speaker refuses to make eye contact or speak to him. Then, the speaker hears another human voice from “far away.” The distance and darkness make it impossible for the speaker to locate the owner of the voice. Moreover, the voice does not “call [the speaker] back or say good-bye”; neither the speaker nor the other voice can make a connection with one another. Thus, though the speaker is teased with opportunities for human connection, the speaker’s inability to make that connection happen only reinforces the speaker's isolation.
Consequently, the speaker’s walk does not provide the solace or resolution the speaker searches for. Rather, the speaker remains in the same state as the beginning. The speaker looks up at the sky for some sort of answer. However, the moon, which the speaker views as a “luminary clock,” tells them that “the time [is] neither wrong nor right.” Thus, even the moon cannot provide the speaker with any comfort or definitive answer. The speaker repeats the assertion that they are “one acquainted with the night,” making it clear that the speaker’s isolation, sorrow, and despair have not lessened or even changed.
Furthermore, the word “one” suggests that the speaker is “one” of many who are similarly familiar with these particular emotions. And indeed, the speaker’s self-perpetuating cycle of isolation and despair exists beyond a particular reason or explanation; the reader never finds out why the speaker is so sad. As the speaker’s suffering is not unique, the poem suggests that isolation, sorrow, and despair are an inherent part of the human experience.
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Acquainted with the Night”
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Lines 1-2
I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.The first two lines of "Acquainted with the Night" establish the setting, using vivid imagery to illustrate the speaker's mood. In the first line, the speaker declares that they are "acquainted," or familiar, "with the night." On a physical level, the speaker is familiar with the night as the speaker is taking a walk through the city during the nighttime. However, the night brings darkness, which is often associated with negative feelings such as despair, sorrow, or isolation. Therefore, "night" can also be a symbol for these emotions. The speaker's declaration of familiarity with the "night" suggests a familiarity with despair, sorrow, or isolation as well.
The term "acquainted," which suggests connection, is used in an ironic manner here to describe the speaker's connection to isolation—or, in other words, the speaker's very lack of connection. The speaker is not connected to any other humans, the way one might be "acquainted with" friends or neighbors. Rather, the speaker is connected to sorrow, despair, and isolation.
In the second line, the speaker states that they have begun and ended a walk in the rain. The use of epistrophe in the repetition of the phrase "in rain" emphasizes the fact that the rain is unceasing and relentless. The rain is often associated with sorrow, as raindrops are often metaphorically compared to human tears: the speaker's sorrow, like the rain, is unceasing and steady. Neither the rain nor the speaker's sorrow abate during the speaker's walk.
"Acquainted with the Night" is a terza rima sonnet with the traditional 14 lines and ending couplet. Each line is also written using iambic pentameter, which is typical for sonnets. As with any sonnet, the opening of "Acquainted with the Night" establishes the "problem" of the poem—in this case, the speaker's sense of despair, sorrow, and isolation. However, the unconventional use of a terza rima rhyme scheme sets the reader up for similarly unconventional takes on the traditional sonnet form, hinting that this problem may not end up being solved.
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Lines 3-4
I have outwalked the furthest city light.
I have looked down the saddest city lane.
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Lines 5-6
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain. -
Lines 7-8
I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry -
Lines 9-10
Came over houses from another street,
But not to call me back or say good-bye; -
Lines 11-12
And further still at an unearthly height,
One luminary clock against the sky -
Lines 13-14
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.
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“Acquainted with the Night” Symbols
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Darkness
Darkness is often associated with negative emotions such as evil or fear. In a literal sense, when an individual is surrounded by darkness, that individual is unable to see or connect with the world around them. The darkness can bring danger too, and thus death and suffering. In "Acquainted with the Night," darkness is symbolic of the speaker's relationship to their despair, sorrow, and isolation from the rest of humanity.
The speaker never explicitly uses the word "dark" in the poem. However, the darkness is clearly implied through the mention of the "night" in lines 1 and 14. The speaker walks through the city at night and declares a familiarity with the night. Therefore, the speaker declares their familiarity to the despair, sorrow, and isolation that are associated with the darkness.
In line 3, the speaker also walks beyond the "furthest city light," thus walking deeper into the darkness. The night, and its associated darkness, is inescapable no matter how far the speaker walks. Indeed, the darkness only intensifies during the speaker's walk. Consequently, the speaker is never able to escape their despair, sorrow, and isolation. Rather, the speaker only experiences these emotions more intensely as the night goes on.
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Light
In contrast to darkness, light is generally associated with positive emotions such as hope, joy, and goodness. Light is often viewed as a life-giving necessity and a symbol of triumph. In "Acquainted with the Night," however, light is symbolic of what the speaker cannot have, and it only serves as a contrast to emphasize the speaker's further descent into the darkness of the night.
In line 3, the speaker notes the presence of a "city light." However, this city light does not signal an increase in light. Rather, the speaker walks past this "furthest city light" into the outskirts of the city and, perhaps, even beyond. Therefore, this "city light" serves only as a marker between the lights of the city and the darkness beyond. This progression into the literal darkness is symbolic of the speaker's further immersion in metaphorical darkness and the associated feelings of despair, sorrow, and isolation.
Similarly, the light of the "luminary clock against the sky," a metaphor for the moon, is unattainable and out of reach. The speaker describes the moon's light as even "further" than the distant cry that appeared in line 8. In fact, the moon is located at an "unearthly height." Thus, the moon cannot be reached by earthly figures such as the speaker. For the speaker, the moon's light is distant and out of reach—as are hope and joy. Instead of offering hope, the moon's light only highlights despair.
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Rain
Rain is often associated with sorrow and mourning, and raindrops falling are frequently used as symbols to represent teardrops. In "Acquainted with the Night," the rain is a physical representation of the speaker's never-ending sorrow.
The speaker begins and ends their walk "in rain." The rain is constant throughout the night; the speaker is unable to escape the rain no matter how far or how long the speaker walks. Therefore, symbolically, the speaker begins and ends their journey in sorrow and despair. These feelings are inescapable for the speaker. Indeed, the speaker cannot progress beyond them no matter what actions they take and no matter how far they walk through the night.
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Clock
Because they track time through human systems and are relatively technologically-advanced objects, clocks are often associated with civilization and human society. In "Acquainted with the Night," the clock represents the speaker's sense of alienation from other people and society. The clock also represents the inability of human civilization to provide comfort, certainty, or direction to the speaker.
In line 11, the clock, a metaphor for the moon, is described as being located "at an unearthly height." The speaker, who is very much at an earthly height, is not able to access or connect to the clock. So in a symbolic sense, the speaker cannot connect with human society or other humans. Moreover, the clock declares "the time [is] neither wrong nor right." Therefore, the clock, and thus human society, can offer no assurance or direction for the speaker; it doesn't seem to tell the speaker anything useful at all. Consequently, the symbol of the clock emphasizes the speaker's isolation and the inability of human connection to comfort or soothe the speaker's feelings.
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“Acquainted with the Night” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Personification
In "Acquainted with the Night," the surrounding environment is personified in various ways to reflect the speaker's desire for human connection. In lines 1 and 14, the speaker declares that they are "acquainted with the night." The word "acquainted" is often used to refer to a connection between one individual and another, as people might be "acquainted" with their neighbors, coworkers, or friends. Here, the speaker is "acquainted" with the night, which makes the night itself seem to be a person. However, the night does not represent real human connection, but rather the speaker's connection to despair, sorrow, and isolation. The personification indicates that the speaker is connected to something—but that something turns out be, put simply, nothing.
The city the speaker walks through is also personified. In line 4, the speaker looks into "the saddest city lane." This particular city street is thus personified as having emotions of sorrow, which reflect the speaker's own inner sorrow. Nature, too, is personified in a manner that reflects the speaker's feelings. In lines 12 and 13, the moon, which is described through the metaphor of a "luminary clock," "proclaim[s] the time [is] neither wrong nor right." Although the moon, through personification, becomes a figure that communicates with the speaker, the connection between the moon and the speaker is not a comforting one. The moon's message provides the speaker with no certainty or direction.
Overall, the personification throughout the poem suggests that the speaker desires human connection so strongly that this desire influences the way the speaker views the world—the speaker is seeking a person, so everything looks like a person. However, no matter how the surroundings are personified, this personification ultimately provides no real connection or comfort for the speaker, highlighting just how isolated the speaker really is.
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Imagery
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Repetition
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Caesura
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Enjambment
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Alliteration
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Consonance
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Assonance
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Synecdoche
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Metaphor
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“Acquainted with the Night” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Acquainted
- Watchman
- Beat
- Unearthly
- Luminary
- Proclaimed
Acquainted-
Familiar with or connected to.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Acquainted with the Night”
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Form
"Acquainted with the Night" is written in the form of a sonnet. However, the poem is not a traditional English or Italian sonnet, but rather a terza rima sonnet. Although the poem incorporates the traditional elements of a sonnet such as the 14 lines and ending couplet, its use of terza rima stanzas is an unconventional choice. The poem begins with four three-line tercets and ends on a rhyming, two-line couplet:
- Tercet
- Tercet
- Tercet
- Tercet
- Couplet
Traditional sonnets often establish a problem around the subject of love, frequently unrequited love. In "Acquainted with the Night," however, the speaker seeks a connection not with an idealized lover figure, but rather with any human individual. It begins as a traditional sonnet does by setting up the speaker's "problem" in the opening lines. However, unlike traditional sonnets, the poem does not contain a "turn" or "resolution" to the speaker's problem. Rather, the speaker's problem of despair, sorrow, and isolation intensifies without relief as the poem progresses, ultimately ending with exactly the same line with which it started—and subverting the conventions of the sonnet form in the process.
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Meter
"Acquainted with the Night" follows the form of a terza rima sonnet. As with a traditional sonnet, the poem is written in regular iambic pentameter, which means that it contains five poetic feet per line, following an unstressed-stressed da-DUM pattern. Take line 6, for example:
And dropped | my eyes | unwil- | ling to | explain.
The perfect regularity of the meter reflects the unchanging monotony of the speaker's emotional state. The speaker's despair, sorrow, and isolation are never alleviated throughout the poem. Moreover, the regular beat of the meter also evokes the rhythm of the speaker's footsteps across the city during their nighttime walk.
Although the meter is steady, there are occasions where the rhythm of the poem is broken up by pauses, usually through enjambment or caesura. For example, the em dash in line 2 and the comma in line 6 (the poem's only two instances of caesura) create variation in the meter. These pauses delay the reading of the words that follow and create an anticipation and expectation of change. In line 2, the reader may expect that the rain would stop by the time the speaker finishes their walk. However, surprisingly, the rain continues to pour down when the speaker returns home.
In line 6, the pause in the middle of the line delays the explanation of why the speaker looks down and away from the watchman. The second half of the line reveals that it is not simply because the speaker is shy, as readers might expect, but rather that the speaker is "unwilling" to engage with the watchman, despite the speaker's isolation and apparent hope for connection. The pauses in the lines encourage readers to build expectation for the speaker's situation to improve, but this expectation is never fulfilled, highlighting just how deep the speaker's isolation and despair are.
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Rhyme Scheme
"Acquainted with the Night" is a sonnet with the traditional 14 lines and ending couplet. However, the first four stanzas are written in a terza rima rhyme scheme, which is unusual for a sonnet.
In a terza rima tercet, the first and third lines borrow their rhyme from the second line of the preceding stanza. Accordingly, the rhyme scheme of "Acquainted with the Night" is as follows:
ABA BCB CDC DED EE
Thus, each subsequent stanza is interlocked with the previous stanza through their shared rhymes. This effect enhances the sense of inescapability that pervades the poem, both in form and content. That is, the speaker cannot get away from their despair and isolation; these feelings follow the speaker throughout the entire walk the poem describes. What's more, the speaker's feelings seem to be a kind of vicious cycle. The speaker is alone and craves connection, but because the speaker is so isolated, they struggle to connect with others (as in line 6, when the speaker looks away from the watchman), which only makes the isolation worse. The terza rima rhyme thus gives the poem a cyclical, all-encompassing feel that mirror's the speaker's situation.
Additionally, the poem often features internal rhyme and slant rhyme within and across lines as a counterpoint to the broader rhyme scheme. In lines 4-7, for example, the slant rhyme in "looked," "passed," "dropped," and "stopped" creates a monotonous rhythm in the speaker's various actions. The monotony of the rhythm emphasizes the fact that nothing the speaker does can change their state of despair, sorrow, and isolation.
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“Acquainted with the Night” Speaker
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The speaker of "Acquainted with the Night" is nameless and genderless. While it's possible that Frost himself may be the speaker, the speaker could be anyone. Indeed, Frost seems to purposefully leave any personal details about the speaker out of the poem in order for any reader to be able to identify with the speaker. Because the speaker is completely anonymous, Frost seems to imply that what the speaker goes through in this poem is a universal aspect of human experience; it can (and often does) happen to anyone.
The main thing that readers know about the speaker is that the speaker is immersed in a state of sorrow and despair. The speaker wants to escape those feelings during a walk in the night. The speaker walks beyond the outermost lights of their city in an attempt to physically escape. However, those feelings prove to be inescapable—just like the night itself. Indeed, the speaker's sorrow and despair keep the speaker from connecting with others (as when the speaker looks away from the watchman), thereby isolating the speaker further.
Therefore, the speaker is trapped in a self-perpetuating cycle of isolation, sorrow, and despair. The speaker cannot find solace in other humans or even in elements of nature itself, such as the moon or the night. Nothing provides any comfort, relief, or resolution for the speaker. At the end of the poem, the speaker is in the same state of misery and loneliness as the beginning of the poem, reaffirming the speaker's seeming inability to escape those emotions.
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“Acquainted with the Night” Setting
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The setting of "Acquainted with the Night" is a city during the nighttime. The streets are, for the most part, deserted—perhaps in part due to the constant rain. Certain parts of the city are illuminated with light, while others are not. A watchman patrols the city and the occasional human voice calls out into the night. Overhead, the moon shines brightly, but offers no comfort or solace to the viewer.
Together, this collection of details indicates that the city is not any particular city. Rather, its details are particular enough to evoke a sense of sorrow and isolation, yet vague enough to apply to many cities around the world. As a result, many readers can relate to the speaker's experience of walking throughout this anonymous city.
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Literary and Historical Context of “Acquainted with the Night”
Literary Context
Frost first published "Acquainted with the Night" in the Virginia Quarterly Review in 1927. The next year, it appeared in Frost's fifth collection of poetry, West-Running Brook. "Acquainted with the Night" is one of Frost's most celebrated poems from that collection; other poems in West-Running Brook, such as "Spring Pools" and "Once by the Pacific," also acquired a degree of fame.
At this point in his career, Frost, who had won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1924, was an established star in the literary world. West-Running Brook, however, was less favorably received than previous collections. This may have been due in part to its shift in style toward more philosophical preoccupations and abstraction, as opposed to the more concrete subjects of Frost's previous works.
"Acquainted with the Night" is a sonnet. Many of Frost's Modernist contemporaries, such as Edna St. Vincent Millay and T.S. Eliot, either wrote sonnets or referenced the form in other works. However, these writers often challenged the traditional restrictions and expectations of the sonnet form. This resistance of tradition would have been very much in line with Modernist values and aesthetics, which emphasized experimentation, ambiguity, and psychological complexity. Millay, for example, departed from tradition by writing sonnets exploring female sexuality from a woman's point of view. Similarly, T.S. Eliot broke up the form and used sonnet fragments in his longer poems. Frost, too, pushed back against tradition, like his fellow Modernists. "Acquainted with the Night" is not a traditional English or Italian sonnet. Rather, it is written in the challenging terza rima sonnet form. Moreover, the poem does not contain the expected "turn" and "resolution" a traditional sonnet would have. Rather, the poem's initial "problem" remains unresolved, with the same opening and ending lines.
The poem's frank exploration of the despair, sorrow, and isolation of the human psyche is also a definite precursor to the Postmodern, or Confessional, poetry of the 1950s and '60s, which similarly explored the darker aspects of the human experience. "Acquainted with the Night" continues to resonate with writers, artists, and readers today, with many paying homage to the poem through various artistic adaptations.
Historical Context
The 1920s in America were aptly named the Roaring Twenties, due to the nation's flourishing economy and prosperity. Innovation, invention, and change dominated the period. Telephones, radios, and televisions were installed in homes across the country. Women gained the right to vote. and fashion also changed to reflect women's greater social independence. Every aspect of society appeared to break or resist in some way with tradition and the past. At the same time, the recent horrors of World War I left many with a foreboding sense of humanity's capacity for death and destruction—a capacity that was enabled by the very innovation that also created such prosperity.
Many artists and writers of this time were interested in exploring this tension between hope and fear, as Frost does here. They often broke with tradition through their work's content or form, or sometimes both. Indeed, Modernism, a global cultural movement during this time, is defined by its break with the past. Another aspect of Modernism is a sense of alienation and isolation as urbanization progresses and rapid change constantly estranges individuals from the certainties of the past. These feelings of alienation and isolation feature prominently not only in "Acquainted with the Night," but also in other art and literature of the time.
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More “Acquainted with the Night” Resources
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External Resources
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"Acquainted with the Night" Read Aloud — Listen to author Robert Frost read his entire poem.
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"Acquainted with the Night" Music Video — Listen to and watch an original music video adaptation of the poem.
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"Acquainted with the Night" Musical Adaptation — Listen to a musical adaptation of the poem.
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"Acquainted with the Night" Art Exhibit — Read about artist Howard Hodgkin's exhibit titled "Acquainted with the Night" and learn about Frost's influence on a contemporary artist.
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Acquainted With the Night: How Whistler’s Nocturnes Changed America — Read about the connection between James Abbott McNeill Whistler's paintings and "Acquainted with the Night."
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Robert Frost
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