As an editor of a poetry magazine, I have read thousands of poems in my nineteen years on the job, and not all of them are worth even the time it takes to read them. But then, there are these. These are the poems that changed my days, my ways, my life, or my mind.

4.08.2012

Acquainted with the Night by Robert Frost

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.


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[first read on Academy of American Poets; available for free online]

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