Acquainted with the Night

Acquainted with the Night by Robert Frost

Throughout this poem, Frost uses the extended metaphor of night in order to describe hardships and struggles in life. Much of these symbols are equated with hyperbole. The "furthest city light" and the "saddest city lane" are metaphors for how dark some times of his life have been (Frost 976). These times were so dark that few could compare. It explains a lot about Robert Frost. I believe that the unearthly clock in the sky truly is the moon in which he speaks of. What may cause people to falter in this idea, is that the moon cannot be used to tell time. However, I believe that is part of the genius of Frost. The consternation that an always mobil, hard to predict moon would create as a clock would be totally off-putting. He does this to symbolize how the times in the night are not just linear. They do not descend from point A to point B to point C. In these dark times, which seem continually present, events and times seem scattered and listless. A common theme for movies, is the one where the protagonist is knocked out of the loop and has lost his wits and all emotion. One example would be in the movie, The Aviator, when Howard Hughes has a mental breakdown and locks himself in his room. The scene is shuffled and obscures as it displays him listless inside his own personal hell, ignorant of the time. It is in times such as these where the moon takes lead as the clock.