Poem- "Acquainted with the Night"

"Acquainted with the Night"

By: Robert Frost

"I have been one acquainted with the night (Page 976)." As an epanalepsis or phrase repeated both at the beginning and end of the poem, this phrase serves a crucial meaning of revealing the meaning. Throughout the poem, the speaker wonders through the night. By wondering, the reader becomes "acquainted" or familiar with the night but is never truly close and connected with it. By using the pronoun, one, the speaker remains distant and keeps separation from the identity and contentedness of knowing the night. The true importance of the line, however, is revealed in its repetition. First revealed in the title, the phrase suggests the relevance and importance of the speaker's connection with the night. In introducing the poem, the phrase provides an induction to the night itself. Yet, it is in the third repetition, that the true significance is stressed. Just as in the saying, "the third time is the charm," the third time truly becomes the charm by ending the night as the "luminary clock" or moon runs out of time and disappears and the speaker moves on by fate.