SpokenVerse | Acquainted with the Night by Robert Frost (read by Tom O'Bedlam) @SpokenVerse | Uploaded April 2014 | Updated October 2024, 2 hours ago.
This is Frost's unique expression of spiritual isolation.
I did post a reading about four years ago but there were a few things wrong with it. It wasn't presented in the correct form and the text was not an accurate transcription.
Poetry posted on the web often has errors in transcription which then propagate from one site to another because people copy and paste without checking for authenticity. Before I became more aware of this I was careless too.
So my previous reading contained errors, for instance it's not "O luminary clock" but "One luminary clock". Google returns 38,500 instances of the wrong wording. Also the earlier version I copied wasn't split into stanzas so it wasn't presented as a terza rima.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquainted_with_the_Night
One of the most popular websites is poemhunter.com and it's one of the first to come up when searching for a poem. Yet it is one of the most unreliable sources. If you use poemhunter then check the wording and punctuation.
Here's an analysis worth reading:
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/frost/acquaint.htm
"Salthouse Docks, Liverpool" and "Nightscape" were both Victorian paintings by John Atkinson Grimshaw
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,
One luminary clock against the sky
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.
This is Frost's unique expression of spiritual isolation.
I did post a reading about four years ago but there were a few things wrong with it. It wasn't presented in the correct form and the text was not an accurate transcription.
Poetry posted on the web often has errors in transcription which then propagate from one site to another because people copy and paste without checking for authenticity. Before I became more aware of this I was careless too.
So my previous reading contained errors, for instance it's not "O luminary clock" but "One luminary clock". Google returns 38,500 instances of the wrong wording. Also the earlier version I copied wasn't split into stanzas so it wasn't presented as a terza rima.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquainted_with_the_Night
One of the most popular websites is poemhunter.com and it's one of the first to come up when searching for a poem. Yet it is one of the most unreliable sources. If you use poemhunter then check the wording and punctuation.
Here's an analysis worth reading:
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/frost/acquaint.htm
"Salthouse Docks, Liverpool" and "Nightscape" were both Victorian paintings by John Atkinson Grimshaw
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,
One luminary clock against the sky
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.
