In The Dark
In the poem, "Traveling through the Dark" by William Stafford, the first stanza begins like a story about what happened one night while driving. Stafford clearly draws a picture of where he is, "Wilson River Road" and what he finds, "a deer dead". He continues on to inform the reader of what you usually do when you find a dead deer on the side of this road. Stafford tells us it is "best to roll them into the canyon." He also explains that because the "road is narrow", if you try to go around the carcass you might wind up getting into an accident yourself, "to swerve might make more dead." The way Stafford explains what to do with dead deer tells the reader that this probably occurs frequently on this particular road, and it is just known that pushing the deer into the canyon is the right thing to do. As I continued reading I began to recognize the understated tone of the poem. Stafford does not use much of his own emotions, but instead lets the descriptive images he uses speak for themselves and paint a picture for the readers. In the second stanza he describes to us that it is a "recent killing", a female
deer "a doe", and that "she was large in the belly." By these descriptions I began to recognize my own feelings of sorrow for the dead mother-to-be. Stafford then continues on to explain that now he realizes that the mother's baby is not dead when he states, "her side was warm; her fawn lay waiting, alive, still never to be born." This strong image of Stafford realizing that the dead mother's baby is still alive invoked greater feelings of pity and sorrow for the fawn. By Stafford not focusing on his own emotions to describe what he finds, I was able to form my own true feelings about the dead deer and the fawn. My emotional reaction was not influenced. I now started to think in the extreme. For a moment I thought Stafford might actually try to save the fawn when he said, "beside that mountain road I hesitated", but I knew that would be impossible. This is where I realized the ironic counterpart of the poem. I was thinking that maybe he might attempt a courageous feat to save the fawn, but I was also prepared for a not so happy ending. At the end of the poem Stafford pushes the deer over into the canyon which is the iro
Some common words found in the essay are:
River Road, William Stafford, poem stafford, dead deer, , push deer, deer canyon, stafford explains, stood glare warm, glare warm exhaust, understated tone, warm exhaust, glare warm, mother's baby, save fawn,
Approximate Word count = 766
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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