Question

The poem “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark” is an example of _____.

Answer 1

Answer:

free verse

Explanation:

In "We Grow Accustomed to the Dark” Emily Dickinson uses several forms in the poem, there is not a specific structure for it. She uses both meter iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter. She uses slant rhymes like “away” and “Goodbye” and also full rhymes like “Tree” and “see”. The rhyme scheme is not always same, she uses ABCB for one stanza then ABBC for the other. Dickinson wrote the poem mixing all the styles she wanted, as a result the poem is a free verse.

Answer 2

Answer:

The poem "We Grow Accustomed to the Dark" is an example of free verse.

Explanation:

Free verse happens when a poem does not follow any rules for meter or rhyme schemes. In her poem "We Grow Accustomed to the Dark", author Emily Dickinson sometimes seems to be following a few rules, only to break them. We can find a couple of patterns in the beginning - a iambic tetrameter followed by a a iambic trimeter, a slant rhyme here and there. Those patterns are quickly discarded. She chooses to make readers pause at the most unusual places. The slant or even full rhymes that seemed to appear in the second and fourth lines of every stanza are no longer there. This lack of consistency creates a poem written in free verse.

The whole poem is as follows:

We grow accustomed to the Dark —

When Light is put away —

As when the Neighbor holds the Lamp

To witness her Good bye —

A Moment — We Uncertain step

For newness of the night —

Then — fit our Vision to the Dark —

And meet the Road — erect —

And so of larger — Darknesses —

Those Evenings of the Brain —

When not a Moon disclose a sign —

Or Star — come out — within —

The Bravest — grope a little —

And sometimes hit a Tree

Directly in the Forehead —

But as they learn to see —

Either the Darkness alters —

Or something in the sight

Adjusts itself to Midnight —

And Life steps almost straight.