Darkness and Night
Both Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost use elements such as point of view, imagery, and structure to portray the significance of dark and night in their poems. Although the poems differ in many ways they share a common theme of loneliness. They also use darkness as a symbol of their feelings. In the two poems “We Grow Accustomed to the Night” and “Acquainted with the Night” the authors use figurative language, sentence fluency and rhythms, and their word choice to reflect their similar views on the darkness of night symbolizing life experiences everyone has to face throughout life.
Emily Dickinson uses the structure to create elements of imagery, and describe an obstacle that everyone has to face. Dickinson uses dashes to represent pauses and makes it difficult to read to symbolize her difficult life. The dashes make the reader’s minds pause and understand what they are reading line by line. The dashes are used to effectively and deliberately make the reader reflect on the darkness. She also uses the dashes to create mental pictures. For example, she states “When not a Moon disclose a sign- Or Star- come out- within-” which creates the image of total darkness because of the lack of a moon and the stars.
Dickinson writes her poem in first person so the average person can relate to her feelings. She understands the darkness to be something natural. Basically she uses the darkness to symbolize something everyone goes through. In her poem darkness describes the loss of a loved one. Unlike Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost doesn’t use dashes. Instead he emphasizes his complete isolation by using the first- person term “I” at the beginning of the first five lines of the poem. He uses the anaphora “I have…” to show he has become “Acquainted with the night” through different experiences.
Throughout the poem the narrator is walking symbolizing persistence. This becomes a extended metaphor. It’s a long lonely walk at night that doesn’t seem to be easy, but he continues although he is unhappy. “I have stood still and stopped the sounds of feet” is an example of an alliteration he uses to create the sound of feet with the “st” sound. He continues to portray the narrator as a persistent and lonely. In conclusion, Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost use the darkness to symbolize life experiences.
