Analysis Of William Stafford's Poem 'Traveling Through The Dark'

In "The Bull Moose," the poem portrays the destructive consequences of human encroachment on the moose's territory, emphasizing the loss of wilderness and the displacement of wildlife. In the poem, the moose's desperate attempts to navigate through the human world, highlighted by lines such as “He looked like the kind of pet women put to bed with their sons.” (Nowlan 28-29) This evokes a sense of helplessness and the loss of its natural habitat. By focusing on the moose's perspective and its struggle to coexist with humans, the poem invites readers to empathize with the animal and question the impact of human activities on wildlife.

A study done by State Farm shows that there have been about 1.23 million deer and car collisions, with just between 2011 and 2012. Just over that one year time span, the 1.23 million crashes have caused 200 deaths (www.insurancejournal.com). In William Stafford’s poem, “Traveling Through the Dark,” the speaker has to make a decision, whether to throw the doe over the cliff and kill the fawn in the mother or to leave the deer there and possibly jeopardize human lives. Although it may seem cruel to some readers, the speaker’s choice to push the dead pregnant doe off the cliff was the best decision, it prevented human deaths and it saved the unborn fawn unnecessary suffering.

Living Like Weasels Close Reading In her documentary type story, Annie Dillard describes and reflects on her encounter with a weasel living in the wild and presents her interpretation of that encounter. She begins the essay by giving the readers an introduction into how a weasel is characterized as wild. For example she states, the weasel “stalks rabbits, mice, muskrats, and birds, killing more bodies than he can eat warm, and often dragging the carcasses home.”

This quote is important because it shows how quickly the accident happened. The speaker was also under the influence and for that he did not have enough time to stop and brake to prevent this incident from happening. These pieces of evidence prove that with negative actions comes sudden consequences. As the poem develops, the speaker shows his emotions towards the deer that was badly injured because of his poor actions. Evidence to prove this statement is “A doe, spinning itself around in a frantic circle, front legs scrambling.”

As a deer hunter, I never like to hear about whether another fellow hunter’s herd is much smaller this year. To understand what the author is conveying and whether the reader is engaged and informed of the issue, we need to look at the points Honeycutt is making. Coyotes predatory behaviour on white tail deer is the main reason why herd numbers are so small. Furthermore to understand if his message is getting across we need to look at the importance of the points he is making. Not many hunters realize that coyotes are having a significant impact on herd numbers. This is the point the author of the article How Coyotes Killed Deer Hunting makes.

When the white-tailed deer show up in my backyard, it's like witnessing a direct link to an age almost forgotten. I freeze in my tracks, and I can't help but think about their unbroken chain of ancestors going back into the ancient past. These animals were here long before any settlers arrived from Europe. They were the hunted long before rifles replaced bows and arrows. They knew these lands when the waters were still clean and the air was still fresh. They knew these lands when there were no cars and no railroads. They were here before horses were brought to this continent from Europe. In their majestic silence, the deer have witnessed footpaths become trails, trails become roads, and roads become interstates. Their resilience is remarkable.

In the creative non-fiction essay, “Living Like Weasels,” Annie Dillard establishes an interesting comparison between the nature of a weasel, a small, carnivorous mammal in relation to the nature of human beings. After Dillard’s naturalistic encounter, she realizes differences in behavior between species regarding human’s habit of living by choice and weasel’s nature of living by necessity. Dillard writes with such description while explaining the “wild” life of a weasel. She creates vivid imagery throughout her essay, through her excessive explanation of wildlife and landscaped scenery. Dillard takes such a stylistic approach to portray the freedom of nature and its entirety.

Using prior knowledge, the cat is the one who has fun by scaring the mouse. These two mismatch in perspective signifies what can occur in the real world in an incident. After this experience, it is certain that Rainsford will think twice about hunting. In other words, the author shows different perspectives in hunting to project the

The power of the poet is not only to convey an everyday scene into a literary portrait of words, but also to interweave this scene into an underlying theme. The only tool the poet has to wield is the word. Through a careful placement and selection of words, the poet can hopefully make his point clear, but not blatantly obvious. Common themes of poems are life, death, or the conflicting forces thereto. This theme could never possibly be overused because of the endless and limitless ways of portraying life or death through the use of different words.

Kristof makes it clear the harm being done to the ecosystem by the colossal amount of deer. He starts off by informing the audience that deer is the number one mammal that harms and kills humans. He uses logos by stating “A study for the insurance industry estimated that deer kill about 150 people a year in car crashes nationwide and cause $1 billion in damage”(Kristof par. 4). Kristof states this claim to persuade the audience to believe that deer are a real harm to humans. He is also informing the reader about the huge amount of people that have been affected by deer. Also, he claims that the overpopulation deer possess a greater danger to humans compared to common predators such as bear, wolves and cougars. Making it clear for the audience to spot the unnatural characteristics that the current environmental imbalance is causing. Furthermore, Kristof uses logic when he states “Greenwich, Conn., budgeted $47,000 this year to pay a company to shoot 80 deer from raised platforms over four nights -- as well as $8,000 for deer birth control”(Kristof par. 17). Kristof uses this statement to display his logic which assist’s his point of view. Overall he is informing the reader that hunting should be something people should invest time

William Stafford, the beloved 20th century American poet, charmed his readers with his poem, “Traveling Through the Dark,” which dives into the human experience. Think about when you were in high school and your teacher told you that she had to use the restroom, leaving the room with just yourself and your test. Did you take advantage of that moment and cheat for the higher grade or did you remain honorable to yourself and continue as if she were in the room looking over your shoulder? Stafford explores the hard decisions people must make, and the consequences that come with those choices by telling us about a narrow road and a dead deer. In his poem, “Traveling through the Dark,” Stafford uses the road as a symbol of death in its literal form, the preciousness of life, and how challenging it is to choose the correct path, to discover what it means to live through the human experience.

The deceased deer is what forces the man to stop along the road, and death in general is what causes humans to stop along their path and take time to make decisions.

In this case, this movie shows simple folk who are invaded by modern society. “When the creatures awake from their hibernation they discover that while they were sleeping, a soulless suburban development stole their woodland space and the humans have erected a huge partition, a hedge, to fence them out” (Halberstam 10). For the creatures who lived in the woods that were taken over by the humans, the simple life is replaced by fast moving, wasteful and irresponsible people. These animals had to adapt to the changes in their new environment, food choices, new creatures, and relationships with those creatures. They had to work to outgrow their title of “vermin” given to them by the humans by proving that this was their territory and they were not going to let it be taken away from

The driver who killed the deer is an example of this theme. He was also traveling through the dark, as the deer was a “recent killing.” The fact that he left it in the middle of the road, with no further thought for it or anyone else behind him, implies his immoral or dark nature.

The poet in lines 5-6 cannot take his fatigued mind off the ‘deer’ as she continues to flee. “my wearied mind Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore,”. These lines signify his ‘obsession’ of possessing his prey. The use of the poetic term ‘consonance’, repetitions of non-vowel sounds, in line 6, “Draw from the deer” expresses the reoccurring longing desire and passion for the deer (woman). Another instance in which consonances are used, “as she fleeth afore, Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore”. In this line there is an unremitting repetition of the letter “F” which gives a great indication that the hunter is out of breath and exhausted. When she flees, it quotes, “fainting I follow”. He can only barely catch up to the wind that follows behind her, so he realises here that the chase is futile. He apprehends the fact that the deer is not welcoming his affection, which refers back to the theme of “unrequited love”. Wyatt in addition introduces a second ‘metaphor’, “wind” in which he uses to describe the woman. The “wind” symbolises agility, freedom and is impossible to capture. The first octave makes out that this was all a wasted hunt, and that the poet is officially unsuccessful.