Literary Devices in Acquainted with the Night

The sonnet ends with a repetition of the first line. The word “night” now has greater significance. In the context of the poem in its entirety, night serves as a symbol for the speaker’s emotional state of isolation, sadness, and despair. His being “acquainted with the night” is both literal and figurative.

The word “luminary” may be used here as an adjective that means related to or characterized by light, suggesting that the speaker describes an illuminated clock in a clock tower that rises high above the city. However, “luminary” when used as a noun is defined as a celestial body, such as the sun or the moon, that gives light. In this regard, “One luminary clock against the sky” may be interpreted as a metaphor for the moon in the dark sky; the moon’s changing position in the night sky indicates the passage of time, as does a clock.

The initial “S” sound alliterates in “stood,” “still,” “stopped,” and “sound,” emphasizing each word in the visual and auditory imagery in the line. No longer walking, the speaker “stood still,” creating silence in place of the sound of his own feet walking on the pavement.

The repetition of the initial “S” sound in “saddest” and “city” is an example of alliteration. The alliteration draws attention to each word and unites them in the line. Describing the city lane or street as the “saddest” implies that other streets are sad, as well. The speaker’s associating them with sadness suggests his emotional state.

Walking beyond “the furthest city light” reinforces the imagery of darkness suggested by “night” in the poem’s first line. Also, “I have” completes the anaphora in the first stanza, the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses. The anaphora is continued in the first two lines of the following stanza. The repetition of “I have” at the beginning of the lines personalizes the speaker’s voice in sharing his experience.

In the phrases “out in rain” and “back in rain,” the repetition of “in rain” is an example of epistrophe, a figure of speech in which one or more words repeat at the end of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences. The repetition of “in rain” suggests the rain’s continuing presence during the speaker’s journey to and from an unspecified place.