What is the poem traveling through the Dark by William Stafford about?
A LitCharts expert can help. The American poet William Stafford published "Traveling through the Dark" in 1962. While driving on a narrow road at night, the poem's speaker finds a dead deer and decides to move the body so that it won't cause other drivers to dangerously swerve out of the way.
Who wrote “traveling through the dark”?
William Stafford, “Traveling through the Dark” from The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 1998 by William Stafford. Reprinted by permission of Graywolf Press, St. Paul, Minnesota, www.graywolfpress.org. Source: The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems (Graywolf Press, 1998)
Why does the speaker decide to drive on the mountain road?
The speaker is traveling at night on a narrow mountain road and comes upon the body of a dead deer. Because the road is so narrow, he realizes that the dead deer is a hazard to other drivers, who might swerve suddenly to avoid it and drive off the road into the river canyon and be killed.
What is the meaning of the poem through the dark?
The title clearly describes both the literal and the figurative situation in the poem as well as its governing metaphor: The speaker himself is traveling through the dark on a narrow mountain road, and by extension, so is everyone.
What is the speaker's dilemma in traveling through the dark?
“Traveling through the Dark” is a poem about coming face to face with death. The speaker is faced with a no-win situation, understanding that moving the dead doe's body out of the road will potentially save other drivers, but also that doing so will kill her unborn fawn.
What does my only swerving mean in traveling through the dark?
I thought hard for us all—my only swerving—, then pushed her over the edge into the river. The speaker thinks about himself and the doe and the fawn. It is his only hesitation ("swerving").
What is the tone of traveling through the dark?
The tone itself is very bleak and sorrowful and seems somewhat melodramatic. Throughout this whole poem, the tone stays consistent and correlates to the deathly feel of the poem. Death is associated to feeling of sorrow or gloominess.
What Discovery does the speaker make when he examines the deer?
The speaker is driving along a mountain road at night when he comes across a dead deer. To prevent an accident, the speaker decides to push the dead deer off the road and down into the canyon. As he drags the deer off, he discovers she was pregnant—the fawn still alive in the dead mother's belly.
What does the deer symbolize in traveling through the dark?
In the title, the darkness means the shroud of what is done when no one is around. Then, in the second stanza, the deer means the death of innocence. In the third stanza, the alive fawn in the pregnant mother means that hope still exists. Unfortunately the hope died with the innocence.
What are the two meanings of the title of the poem traveling through the dark?
The title sets the scene both literally and thematically. The speaker is driving at night—traveling through the darkness. The title also gives us the sense of "darkness" as in the unknown and suggests our travels through the mysteries of life, death, and the great beyond.
What type of poem is traveling through the dark?
'Traveling through the Dark' by William Stafford is a five-stanza poem that is separated into sets of four lines, known as quatrains. This remains true throughout the entire poem until the final stanza, which has two lines, making it a couplet. The poem is written in free verse.
In what way does the speaker experience a shift in perspective at the end of traveling through the dark?
In what way does the speaker experience a shift in perspective at the end of "Traveling Through The Dark"? He realizes he cannot save the fawn.
Why does the speaker repeat the phrase I was fifteen at the ends of stanzas 1 3?
In "Fifteen" why does the speaker of the poem repeat "I was fifteen" at the end of the poem. It emphasizes how young and vulnerable he is to this temptation, and thus how dangerous the situation is for him.
Why does the author repeat the words I was fifteen How does this repetition affect the theme of the poem?
After every stanza The author keeps repeating the words "I was 15." This explains that the speaker is only a 15 year old teenager. Usually teens aren't matured enough to have as much freedom as an adult. Setting: "South of the bridge on Seventeenth."
What is the function of the repetition I was fifteen in the poem?
The strongest evidence of this is in the constant repetition of the phrase “I was fifteen,” as if the speaker feels so differently now that he has to remind himself of why he felt as he did then.
What is an Enjambment in poetry?
Enjambment, from the French meaning “a striding over,” is a poetic term for the continuation of a sentence or phrase from one line of poetry to the next. An enjambed line typically lacks punctuation at its line break, so the reader is carried smoothly and swiftly—without interruption—to the next line of the poem.
How do you interpret the meaning of the images silver tear and tiny flame in the poem The Gift?
Rather, it would seem that he planted something in his palm. By “silver tear”, the poet points to the unseen tear of his father that reflected on the shiny blade. It means his father was sad internally but he did not show it. By the phrase “tiny flame”, the poet is again referring to the idea of self-discipline.
What does the speaker say when a dead deer is found on the edge of a road?
The speaker says that when a dead deer is found on this road it is "usually best to roll [it] into the canyon," because otherwise, left...
How did the speaker describe the deer in the second and third stanza?
In the second and third stanzas, the speaker describes how he dragged the body of the dead deer closer to the edge of the road, intending to roll it into the river and so out of the way of any other cars. The speaker says that as he touched the deer's body he felt that "her side was warm." He then says that he realized that the deer was pregnant and that the unborn fawn was still alive inside of its mother.
What is the moral dilemma in Traveling Through the Dark?
The speaker's moral dilemma is whether to roll the deer, with its fawn inside, into the river and out of the way of any more cars, or whether to leave it where it is and so not be responsible himself for killing the fawn.
Who wrote the poem "Traveling through the Dark"?
The American poet William Stafford published "Traveling through the Dark" in 1962. While driving on a narrow road at night, the poem's speaker finds a dead deer and decides to move the body so that it won't cause other drivers to dangerously swerve out of the way.
When was Traveling through the Dark published?
William Stafford published "Traveling through the Dark" in a book of the same name in 1962 . Stafford was in his mid-40s at the time and the book was his first well-known collection, going on to win the National Book Award in 1963.
What line in the song "The Car aimed ahead its lowered parking lights"?
Lines 13-16: “The car aimed ahead its lowered parking lights; / under the hood purred the steady engine. / I stood in the glare of the warm exhaust turning red; / around our group I could hear the wilderness listen.”
How many lines are there in Traveling Through the Dark?
The 18 lines of "Traveling through the Dark" are arranged into four quatrains (four-line stanzas) followed by a final couplet. The first four quatrains give the poem a feeling of consistency, as the speaker organizes each stanza in the same way.
What style of language did Stafford use?
Unlike the charged and passionate lyricism of a poet like Sylvia Plath or the verbose style of a poet like Allen Ginsberg, Stafford used conversational language that felt self-contained and measured.
How many lines are in the poem "Traveling Through the Dark"?
William Stafford’s “Traveling Through the Dark” is a short poem of eighteen lines, divided into four quatrains and a closing couplet. The title clearly describes both the literal and the figurative situation in the poem as well as its governing metaphor: The speaker himself is traveling through the dark on a narrow mountain road, and by extension, ...
Why does Stanza 2 show him getting out of the car to look at the dead deer?
Because the road is so narrow, he realizes that the dead deer is a hazard to other drivers, who might swerve suddenly to avoid it and drive off the road into the river canyon and be killed. Stanza 2 shows him getting out of the car to look at the deer; he discovers that it is a doe, only recently dead.
What is the poem Traveling Through the Dark about?
William Stafford’s poem “Traveling Through the Dark” examines the killing of a pregnant doe by a hit-and-run driver, and the dilemma faced by the speaker who is also a driver.
Why do people travel in the dark?
People generally travel in the dark when there is some urgency or when they have some immediate destination to reach. So, the speaker of this poem is traveling in the dark with some special purpose. But when he finds a dead doe on the road, he is in dilemma. He is in confusion either to show deep love and emotion to an unborn but alive fawn in ...
What does the traveler discover in Death?
But on touching her side he finds that it is still warm and it contains a fawn waiting to be born. In death the traveler discovers life , but not normal life that emerges from the womb into the world, for the fawn is “never to be born.” This unhappy realization causes the traveler to hesitate. His mind is filled with mixed-up emotions: pity, anger, frustration, and confusion about how to act. He even wonders if the fawn can be saved, but knows all along that the fawn cannot be born when the mother is dead. The car is mechanically alive and its lights are pointing the speaker towards his destination. In the final couplet the traveler thinks hard for all, he knows that his love and pity towards the fawn cannot save it. He knows that his delay is only a waste of time, so he pushes the doe into the river and marches towards his destination.
What does the driver's inaction mean in the book?
The driver’s inaction suggests moral darkness. The darkness also suggests the narrator’s confusion about what to do with the deer. “Traveling through the dark” also symbolizes the spiritual void of humankind in its insensitivity toward nature.
Introduction
William Bradford’s “Traveling through the Dark” seems to present its setting in the very title, but further analysis of the poem allows discerning that the “dark” has two shades of meaning. The direct connotation of the dark is the time of the day when the events are happening.
Stanza 1
The beginning of the first stanza is quite peaceful, which is conveyed through the conversational tone of the speaker who “found a deer” when “Traveling through the dark” (Bradford line 1). However, immediately after introducing this seemingly pleasant encounter, Bradford goes on to say that the animal is “dead” (2).
Stanza 2
The second stanza is rich in imagery, focusing on shapes and colors. When the narrator mentions that he was moving “By the glow of the tail-light” (5), a sinister and rather horrifying picture comes to mind. The red color of the car’s tail-light disseminated in the dark reminds of blood and makes one think of the innocent animal that was killed.
Stanza 3
While the situation with a deer is already sad enough, it being a female made it more dramatic. However, the whole dilemma becomes even more serious when upon “touching her side” (9), the narrator finds out that she is pregnant. The doe is dead, but “her side [is] warm” (10), and her fawn is “waiting” (10) to be born, which is not going to happen.
Stanza 4 and the Final Couplet
Stanza 4 focuses on the unbearable conflict between the narrator’s willingness to do what is good and the necessity to do what is right and what is always done in such cases. The road is very narrow, and it is customary for people of the neighborhood to push dead deer into the river.
Symbolism
The main symbols in the poem are darkness and the road. The dark means both the time of the day and the feelings of fear and uncertainty. Along with the first word of the poem – “Traveling” (1) – darkness symbolizes the difficulties one encounters on the road of life.
Rhythm
The poem is written in free verse, but several elements give it metrical order. First of all, there is a clear division into stanzas. Four four-line stanzas and the ending couplet set the metric tone of the poem. Furthermore, despite there being no rhyme, there is a certain feeling of rhythm that is created using similar sounds in lines.
