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  • Essay / Exploring Darkness in the Poems of Dickinson and Frost

    The poems “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark” by Emily Dickinson and “Knowing the Night” by Robert Frost both speak distinctly of darkness. Both authors relate darkness to real-life emotions such as sadness and depression, but the way they describe it is different from each other. This is reflected in the titles of the poems. Accustomed is a word that describes something that usually happens while known means to know, but not completely familiar. So basically one poem says that darkness is a common thing while the other poem says that it happens, but not too often. The way darkness is used in these poems makes the reader think of literal darkness or night. When we delve deeper into the poem, that's not what it's about. Darkness represents sadness or a difficult time in life. The poems both say that darkness and sadness happen to everyone because no one's life is perfect. Everyone goes through tough times no matter what and you have to learn how to deal with it in any given circumstances. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original EssayThe poem “We Get Used to the Dark” is more of a darker poem than the other. He says there is always darkness everywhere, but humans get used to it throughout their lives and don't fully realize it. It is most noticed when a major negative event occurs, such as a family death, which is rather selfish if humans only care about their own and others' happiness. This poem had hyphens in many places throughout the poem. Dashes make the reader pause for a second, then continue. They would cause a dramatic effect which was lacking in the second poem. This poem was written in the first person plural. Whenever the word “we” is said, the reader is included as well as anyone else. The strongest line in this poem is “And sometimes he hits a tree straight in the forehead.” This phrase is powerful because it says that darkness/sadness can come out of nowhere and hit us in the face without warning. This is a good analogy to use because walking in the dark could result in hitting objects that cause pain, which in this case is a tree branch. The second poem “Knowing the Night” is brighter than the first. There are no hyphens inside to cause a dramatic effect like the first and is not written in the first person plural. This poem is written in the first person singular, which takes a more personal approach. The poem would only be about the reader as he says “I” over and over again. This poem uses parallelism to make connections with elements. The main theme of this poem is that sadness is not a big problem in some people's lives. They experience sadness, but it is simply known instead of familiar. This is why they know darkness; This happens, but very rarely. An important literary device used in this poem and not in the first poem is the ending of the book. The end of a book is when the first line and the last line of the poem are exactly the same thing. This is because the author wants the reader to see it and notice it, and to think about it more on a deeper level. The sentence is: “I have known the night. » This line is important because it says that night (darkness/sadness) is knowledge. This poem does not say that sadness will come out of nowhere but that it will not happen too..