I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.
I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.
I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,
But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
One luminary clock against the sky
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.
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About "Acquainted with the Night"
Perhaps the foremost American poet, Robert Frost was born in San Francisco in 1874 but spent much of his life in New England. His "Acquainted with the Night" first appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review and was published in 1928 in his collection West-Running Brook. Written in iambic pentameter, the sonnet-length poem uses a "terza rima" rhyme scheme (aba bcb cdc dad aa). Popularized by Dante, the scheme is popular in Italian but rarely used in English.
On its face, the poem depicts a narrator strolling the streets of a city, alone. Although evocative in its realistic details (I have passed by the watchman on his beat/ And dropped my eyes), "Acquainted with the Night" can also be read allegorically, as a poet confessing to his familiarity with the "night" of melancholy.