"Acquainted with the Night"

"Acquainted with the Night"
Robert Frost

In this poem, Frost uses interlocking rhyme scheme. By using this rhyme scheme, Frost creates a sense of familiarity within each new stanza. The reader recognizes the words meant to rhyme and this creates a feeling that the rhyme has occurred previously. This feeling that the rhymes seem to go in a circular pattern contributes to the point of the poem that the speaker has gone on night walks multiple times. In addition, each stanza's rhyming words differ slightly from the previous stanza's. This shows that even though the pattern feels similar, each stanza is different. This relates to the speaker on his walks. The speaker has taken multiple walks at night, but because the rhyming words change from stanza to stanza, the speaker's walks probably differ from walk to walk. To add to the sense of repetition, Frost repeated the line "I have been one acquainted with the night" (Frost) at the beginning and the end of the poem. By repeating this line, Frost brings the poem full circle to give the sense of repetition. It also reinforces that the speaker has become acquainted with the night because he has repeatedly taken nighttime strolls.