William Stafford's Poem 'Traveling Through The Dark'

In the Robert Frost poem ‘’The Road Not Taken’’ there is a pervasive and in many ways intrinsic sense of journey throughout. In such, the poem explores an aspect associated with human decision, or indecision, relative to the oxymoron, that choices with the least the difference should bear the most indifference, but realistically, carry the most difficulty. This is conveyed through the use of several pivotal techniques. Where the first such instance is the use of an extended metaphor, where the poem as a whole becomes a literary embodiment of something more, the journey of life. The second technique used is the writing style of first person. Where in using this, the reader can depict a clear train of thought from the walker and understand

Robert Frost's poem “The Road Not Taken” describes a traveler faced with a choice of which one of two roads to travel. He knows not where either road might lead. In order to continue on his journey, he can pick only one road. He scrutinizes both roads for the possibilities of where they may take him in his travels. Frost's traveler realizes that regret is inevitable. Regardless of his choice, he knows that he will miss the experiences he might have encountered on the road not taken.

In life people often unexpectedly face crisis which puts to test our moral sensitivity. An analysis of the poem's "plot" the poem opens with the speaker finding a dead deer on the side of the road. Instead of swerving and avoiding the deer the speaker pulls over to move the deer off the side of the road. The speaker discovering of a dead deer is not given as a traumatic or yet an unknown experience. - "it is usually best to roll them into the canyon." The narrator sees this as a normal everyday occurrence and not something that could disturb him or anyone else for that matter, this is not seen unusual but there are sometimes moments in the middle of the ordinary which exceed the ordinary and bring us to a place we would never have thought we would be in. Not everyone has the moral capability of stopping to think of the consequences but this is one of the main points or facts of the poem. “Beside the mountain road I hesitated,” what has stopped him in his intended path? We know that he is stopped by the life inside that run over deer of an unborn baby deer. This series of events are what shows how the author indents the importance of moral values and how life can take an unexpected road. As given in the literary work or “Traveling through the Dark” as the light on the other side of the tunnel may be dark but it does not mean that one should not take the easy path of just driving away without looking at the consequences that life can

In William Stafford 's poem “Traveling through the Dark” he establishes how a gloomy sight can hide the truth that no one would want to know. While driving down Wilson River road a person saw a dead deer on the edge. He pull over to take the deer of the road more a notices that it is a doe and it’s pregant. He feels the stomach and the baby is alive but not for long. He hesitates when he looks at his car and hears it and the wilderness. He eventually pushes the deer over the edge of the river. In the exposition, the poem tells that while driving down the road he saw a deer and most people would either severe it to past it or

     William Stafford’s "Traveling through the dark" is beautifully written poem that expresses one of life’s most challenging aspects. It is the story of a man’s solitary struggle to deal with a tragic event that he encounters.

In “Traveling through the Dark” by William Stafford and “Woodchucks” Maxine Kumin, man vs. natural death situations are present. Both poems share some similarities and differences. In “Traveling through the Dark”, the speaker is compassionate and considerate towards the dead deer and whose main goal is to get it off the road to prevent future deaths. However, in “Woodchucks” the speaker shows violence in killing the woodchuck, to the point of killing the whole bird family. In both poems by William Stafford and Maxine Kumin, the poets each emphasize different attitudes toward animals; Stafford showing compassion while Kumin shows vengeance, through the use of vivid imagery, explicit diction, and metaphors.

One main way the theme of death is illustrated is through symbolism of the deer, canyon, and river. The deer is a roadblock which must be dealt with before the man can continue on his journey. He cannot simply push death to the side of the road. Here, the deer would rot and fester; instead, as Stafford states in the first stanza, " it is usually best to roll them into the canyon" (line 3). The way to deal with this problem is to discard of it immediately and to not hesitate at all. Literally, this is true for the safety of other motorists. Furthermore, it is necessary to deal properly with this problem so one can continue on their path in life. The canyon, and river at the bottom, therefore come to symbolize the depth of our individual souls; we push problems into our souls, and slowly deal with them. By doing this, our problems and death, may be symbolically washed away.

In “Traveling through the Dark,” the author uses symbolize several time. First, the unborn fawn “lay there waiting, alive, still, never to be born” (line 10-11). Here, the fawn is a symbol of the nature’s future as well as the lack of opportunities: although the mother is dying, the fawn still waits to meet a completely new world. However, the author doesn’t have a choice to save the fawn; instead, the author has to push the mother “over the edge into the river” (line 18). Unfortunately, the fawn will not have the chance to experience the beauty of the word as well as its own life. Using the fawn as a symbol, the author shows that human should pay more attention to and be nice to the nature, or our nature will eventually come to an end. What’s more, the road symbolizes the path of life. In line 12, Stafford claims that he hesitates beside that mountain road. He illustrates that it is hard to make a good choice towards the relationship between human and nature. Although the speaker knows the right path— to keep the road of life clear so that he can move on, he hesitates since it is grim to kill both the doe and the fawn. On the other hand, the tone change throughout the poem helps Kumin demonstrate his attitude towards the animals.

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.

In William Stafford's "Traveling Through the Dark", there are conflicting themes between birth and death, man and

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.

In the poem, “Traveling through the Dark” the speaker is driving on Wilson River road which is narrow and on a canyon. Upon traveling on this road, the speaker encounters a dead deer and is faced with the decision of driving around it or throwing the deer off the canyon. If the speaker leaves the deer on the road and drives around it, “to swerve might make more dead (line 4),” meaning swerving on the narrow road could lead to either the speaker falling off the canyon or getting into an automobile accident. The speaker decides to get rid of the deer himself because “it is usually best to roll them into the canyon (line 3).”

Next, the “Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight…” represent the impact of adventurous individuals (10). Compared to the movement of the sun, wild men’s deeds chase after worldly things and have an impact so great that it pertains to the light of day. Last, “Grave men, near death.../Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay” speak for serious individuals, going to say that their deeds, although they may be small, can still have a major impact (13-14). The speaker points out these four examples in order to elaborate on the significance of not accepting death.

The Result of Human Nature Nobody would ever gaze at a dead pregnant human on the edge of the road and drag her over a cliff and into a river, so why would you do it to a dead doe, especially if it’s pregnant? In William Stafford's poem “Traveling through the Dark,” this decision is seemingly an easy choice for the speaker who encounters a dead pregnant doe that was hit by a car on a mountain road. How did he rectify this complication? By throwing this beautiful creature over a cliff and killing the fawn, which in a compassionate human being’s eyes would be considered murder. Although the speaker may appear sympathetic by dragging the pregnant doe off the side of the road, he does not make the most reasonable decision because the unborn fawn

There is much more to this poem than its literal story. The title, along with the story itself, suggests man's overlook for nature. People seem to travel through oblivious to the consequences of their actions. 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 dark nature.