Spring 2006 High School Edition
Acquainted or Accustomed?
Staci Wilson
Formal Essay (11th-12th)
Third Place
Parowan High School
Teacher: Gail Harris
“We grow acquainted with the night” and “accustomed to the dark.” There are times in everybody’s lives when it seems they are walking without any light to see their way, choosing to hope or despair. This is the main focus of Frost’s and Dickinson’s two poems.
Emily Dickinson writes of growing accustomed to the dark, learning to live in it and walk forward without too much hindrance. She writes in general, that everyone goes through the point when “Light is put away…” Her usage of words give a great individual picture to each person who reads it and remembers finding his or her way in the dark times. The last stanza is amazing when she writes of either the light or the sight changes to see at the darkest time, but nevertheless, life goes on.
Robert Frost discusses being acquainted with night and sadness and sorrow saying he “walked out in rain-and back in rain.” His imagery is very potent when he talks about walking further than the furthest city light and hearing cries along the streets. He also gives a sense of the self-proclamation not to take him lightly—he’s been to the depths of sorrow and back. It almost sounds bitterly sarcastic when he repeats his opening line at the end: “I have been acquainted with the night.” It’s nearly possible to hear a sigh before that last line as if in resignation to the fact that life has treated him badly at times, if not all the time.
The two poems are very alike, but extremely different in purpose. They share the thought that humans go through dark times in their lives and desperately try to find their way. But the two words that ring out the differences are “accustomed” and “acquainted.” Accustomed connotes acceptance and acquaintance only shows a brief meeting and no deep understanding. Dickinson shows hope and determination in her poem, but Frost seems to show despair and resignation to the fact he’s mostly in the dark and walks away from light.
Both accept that darkness is a part of living, but show that attitude is a governing factor in how one chooses to walk through it.
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