Acquainted With the Night

Poem lyrics of 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.

"Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right" - how befitting. The modern man could neither learn enough of history nor catch up with enough of technology. We were't born in days when empires were built or conquered (including the empire of modernity, built in early to mid twentieth centuries with fundamental sciences). We aren't in time to catch Cyrus and Darius or Neils Bohr. Neither are we born in future when anything could happen (or could it?). So where are we in time? Where does the journey of night-walking lead us?