The Poems of Darkness

In the poems We grow accustomed to the Dark by Emily Dickinson and Acquainted with the Night by Robert Frost, both poets talk about the darkness and how they react to it. Emily Dickinson writes about how one gets used to the dark and being in the dark. In Robert Frost’s poem the darkness symbolizes loneliness and sadness. They both use different symbols and meanings to express the feel of darkness.

In Emily Dickinson’s poem she starts the poem by explaining that we grow accustomed to the dark, which tells us that the sun is going down “the light is put away,” and the night is new. As we walks farther into the darkness the neighbor says goodbye. She expresses her getting accustomed to the darkness by saying, “A Moment – We uncertain step, For newness of the night, Then fit our vision to the Dark and meet the road – erect.” In the beginning of the poem she was talking about the darkness outside. Now she’s talking about the darkness inside, the darkness in the heart and in the brain. She describes the darkness inside where there is no light: “When not a Moon disclose a sign, or star – come out – within”. Some get used to the darkness inside. They are blinded at first: “ The bravest grope a little and sometimes hit a tree”, but then they adjust to the dark inside them: “Either the Darkness alters, or something in the sight Adjusts itself to Midnight and Life steps almost straight,” and they somehow find ways to live with it.

Robert Frost speaks differently than Emily Dickinson. He does not refer to the people dealing with darkness but him alone, walking in the darkness, lonely and sad. He starts the poem by saying: “I have been one acquainted with the night,” and goes on by describing how he is walking in the rain which is kind of sad, without any purpose and feeling sad and depressed, “I have outwalked the furthest city light; I have looked down the saddest city lane.” He is really lonely because when he hears a cry, he stops to see if it is calling him, but it’s not. When he says: “And further still at an unearthly height, O luminary clock against the sky,” he uses a metaphor that means the moon. At the end of the poem he “has been acquainted with the night,” which means that he is meant to be lonely and sad.

In conclusion, I think that Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost’s poems are similar yet very different. Both poems show a sense of loneliness and darkness. They both use metaphors, for example “Evenings of the brain” which means darkness inside a person in Dickinson’s poem and “O luminary clock against the sky” which means the moon in Robert Frost’s poem. The differences are in the feel of the poems. Even though Emily Dickinson’s poem deals with darkness in one’s soul, the tone is positive. On the other hand Robert Frost’s poem feels negative and hopeless. Dickinson refers to many people in her poem and uses the words “us” and “we” to describe the feeling of the poem. Frost refers to just himself and uses the word “I’ to describe his loneliness and sadness.