POETRY ESSAY PROMPT #2

2004 Poems “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark” (Emily Dickinson) and “Acquainted with the Night” (Robert Frost)
Prompt: The poems below are concerned with darkness and night. Read each poem carefully. Then, in a well-written essay, compare and contrast the poems, analyzing the significance of dark or night in each. In your essay, consider elements such as point of view, imagery, and structure.



We Grow Accustomed to the Dark

We grow accustomed to the Dark --
When light is put away --
As when the Neighbor holds the Lamp
To witness her Goodbye --

A Moment -- We uncertain step
For newness of the night --
Then -- fit our Vision to the Dark --
And meet the Road -- erect --

And so of larger -- Darkness --
Those Evenings of the Brain --
When not a Moon disclose a sign --
Or Star -- come out -- within --

The Bravest -- grope a little --
And sometimes hit a Tree
Directly in the Forehead --
But as they learn to see --

Either the Darkness alters --
Or something in the sight
Adjusts itself to Midnight --
And Life steps almost straight.




Acquainted with the Night

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,
A luminary clock against the sky

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


Outline:
-Diction, Imagery and POV
The night is a metaphor for hard times, struggles and uncertainty. To get "acquainted" or "accustom" to the night means one gets used to the hurt and pain as it becomes more clear. This does not make the pain go away, or in this case the night, but it does make it clearer and easier to navigate through.

POV:First one talks of everyone getting accustom to hard times (the night) while the second speaks of a personal experience with hard times.

Diction: both view the night (pain) as a negative thing but something that naturally happens and that must happen through out the day or through out life.

Imagery: Navigation is key in both poems and both authors emphasis the imagery of someone traveling through the night.

(I will write pre-writes of all the essays in order to get practice on pre-writes and then I'll write the actual essays)