Robert Frost’s ‘Acquainted With the Night’

Robert Frost’s ‘Acquainted With the Night’ is a poem that moves about in a twilight world as far as choices available in life are concerned or when it concerns taking a firm stand on an issue. It is a poem about the darker side of things and portrays the poet’s isolation.
The poet in this poem describes the comings and goings of a person walking about on the city roads. The poet has even braved the rain and wandered around on the city roads. He even walked upto the outskirts of the city. The poet even refers to the ‘saddest city lane’. He has seen the watchman while on his beat in these lanes. The poet saw some immoral activities being performed but he does not specifically mention them. Instead his eyes were dropped down with shame.
The poet then stands still and the sounds of a cry fall upon his ears. The cry comes from a distant place and is also not continuous. The interrupted nature of the cry symbolizes suppression. The cries were neither to welcome nor to bid farewell to the poet. And then talking about the ‘luminary clock’ of the sky, the moon, the poet doesn’t clearly pass a judgement whether the time was right or wrong. The poet was simply familiarized with the immoral nature of night in the city slum areas.