The following version of this poem was used to create this guide: Frost, Robert. “Acquainted with the Night.” Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47548/acquainted-with-the-night.

Note that all parenthetical citations within the guide refer to the lines of the poem from which the quotations are taken.

“Acquainted with the Night” was first published in 1928, midway between the two great wars and immediately preceding the great depression. Despite being among Robert Frost’s most famous and widely anthologized works, it is unusual for his poetic style in that it takes place in an urban environment rather than a rural or natural one. The poem follows a speaker who travels through a rainy city at night, avoiding human contact and physically and emotionally distancing themself from the civilized world.