By Robert Frost (1928)
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.
Analysis
Frost adapts Dante’s chained rhyme for a modern city walk, where the speaker measures solitude by rain, averted eyes, and a clock that pronounces time beyond judgment. Progress loops back; the form’s returns mirror the night’s closed circuit. It’s an urban pilgrim’s terza rima with no shrine.