We Grow Accustomed to the Dark,
by
Emily Dickinson, and Acquainted
with the Night, by
Robert Frost, both have the theme of dark, which can be interpreted
as pain and/or depression. They both have very different points of
view. We Grow
Accustomed to the Dark is
said in the we-voice, unlike Acquainted
with the Night which
is narrated from an I-perspective. If the reader ties the two poems
together, he can extract that everyone has pain and depression. Only
the strongest, the bravest, have the power to swim through the dark.
If they're just strong enough, they might even find light, where they
no longer carry so much weight, and can fly again.
We
Grow Accustomed to the Dark is
told from the we-perspective which makes the reader infer that the
narrator is a large group of people, or it is one person speaking for
all of mankind. The poem is about how “we” get familiarized to
the dark, which can be taken as pain. The poem writes that you must
spend time in it, and your eyes adjust, and you can soon see. “The
Bravest-grope a little-/And sometimes hit a Tree/Directly in the
Forehead-/But as they learn to see-” is speaking of how the bravest
of people are able to learn to see, though even them hit a bump or
two along the way. “Either the Darkness alters-/Or something in
the sight/Adjusts itself to Midnight/And Life steps almost straight.”
is speaking about a person adapting to the darkness, and finding a
type of light. This light represents hope that if you survive the
dreaded dark, it will fade slowly, and transform into light and
happiness. It is portraying something much like a bright butterfly
emerging from its drab cocoon.
Acquainted
with the Night is
about one man or woman's (told from the I-voice) painful experiences.
“I have been acquainted with the night.” tells the reader that
the narrator has felt constant pain. The reader knows that it is
constant because of “I have walked out in rain-and back in rain.”
Rain symbolizes pain similar to dark, because like pain, if enough
is poured on top of you, you will drown. After some time, you are
too tired, and have no energy left to swim, to stay at the top.
Before a person can no longer stay at the top, they must lose hope.
The narrator of Acquainted
with the Night has
lost his/her hope. “I have outwalked the furthest city light.”
The city light is referring to the last sliver of hope they saw. The
last stanza, “Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right./I
have been one acquainted with the night.” reveals that the speaker,
whether it is Robert Frost, or “I” as in the world, has come to
believe that depression is a way of life. If something isn't wrong
or right, it is just normal, not bad nor good.
At a certain level of depression, there is no light, or hope, to
brighten the dark. When there is no hope, you forget what the colors
look like, and what the rays of sun feel like on your arms.
Eventually, you believe that pain and sadness is a normality for
everybody, that there is nothing wrong in your life. When a person
is really depressed, it feels like there is no end to it. Every time
the person tries to help themselves, they sink deeper into it. The
pain is like quick sand with nothing to grab hold of, and normally,
no one to grab hold of the person sinking. If that person is strong
enough though, their will power will act like a thick vine, and will
slowly pull them out, and they can plant their feet on firm ground
once more.
