Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Acquainted With the Night -- Frost

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,
O luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.

One of very few poems I have once memorized. It uses terza rima rhyme scheme, most famously found in Dante's Divine Comedy, and Shelley's Ode to the West Wind. Frost excels.

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