Rhyme Scheme, Symbolism and Tone in Robert Frost's "Acquainted with the Night"
             Robert Frost is known as the most famous twentieth-century, New England poet. The sonnet "Acquainted with the Night" has drawn more commentary and analysis than any other poems. The extraordinary rhythmical arrangement and word choice of the sonnet sets the reader in an inescapable mood. The symbolism comprised is also an essential element in "Acquainted with the Night". The charm of this poem largely depends on the slight heightening of tone, which portrays the essence of man's existence in his lonely human state. Collectively the rhyme scheme, symbolism and tone of the speaker make up the poetic form.
             The poem's pattern is written in a uniquely unusual and exceptional sonnet form. 'Acquainted with the Night' "adopts the even more rigid form" of the Italian triple terza rima rhyme form (Isaacs 105, Maxson 72). John Robert Doyle, Jr. discusses the "rigid relationship between stanza and sentence pattern". He points out that "'I have' sentences appear three times in stanza one, twice in stanza two, once in stanza three, and no times in stanza four. Sentences that do not start with 'I have' appear in the opposite order" (qtd. in Maxson 72). The five "I have" clauses are described as "details of a man of sorrow, acquainted with grief" (Isaacs 106). "The present perfect tense of 'I have', strongly implies that the persona continues, ever after the poem, to engage in this process of reflecting upon himself and his spiritual potential. This repetition both stresses the main idea of the poem and pulls the whole poem together. Also some critiques see "I" as an implication of "Everyman" (Isaacs 105, Murray par. 3). According to Robert Pack the "I" is "locked into an obsessive 'I' of self-consciousness" (Pack 16).
             The images in "Acquainted with the Night" lead to the poem's symbolic meaning. Unwilling and perhaps unable to explain explicit...