Literary Essay #2

     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.