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William Stafford (January 17, 1914 – August 28, 1993 / Kansas)
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Traveling Through The Dark
Traveling through the dark I found a deer
dead on the edge of the Wilson River road.
It is usually best to roll them into the canyon:
that road is narrow; to swerve might make more dead.
By glow of the tail-light I stumbled back of the car
and stood by the heap, a doe, a recent killing;
she had stiffened already, almost cold.
I dragged her off; she was large in the belly.
My fingers touching her side brought me the reason--
her side was warm; her fawn lay there waiting,
alive, still, never to be born.
Beside that mountain road I hesitated.
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.
I thought hard for us all--my only swerving--,
then pushed her over the edge into the river.
Read poems about / on: car, river, dark, red, light, travel
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I think the man made the right decision in not saving the unborn deer, had he saved it, it would have died of starvation and dehydration and so what he really did was save the deer from a brief painful life.
the speaker is having a moral dilema the poem is about nature and death and the sadness that comes with it
That is sooo sad. Why couldn't he save it? ?
It is very well written, but very sad. Were it I, I would have saved the yet unborn
It is technically not a sonnet as regards either line number or rhyme scheme, but it has the feel of a sonnet and is a very good poem. The rhythm of the five-beat line and the images are masterful.
It's a poignant poem but you're right, its not a sonnet. I like it.
A sad poignant moment. A live being lives on beyond and then dies. Almost unbearable
Dude, it's not a sonnet. Sonnets have fourteen lines.
This is a very fine sonnet. Its 7 out of 10 'user rating' is a reflection on the readers, not the poem. I wonder how many readers even recognized that it is a sonnet. The half-rhymes and loose iambic give it a prosy surface without sacrificing the rhythm, which is perfect. Take the last line: 'Then pushed her over the edge into the river, ' exactly echoes the sense - with the first cluster of stressed syllables suggesting the pushing and the last, rushing syllables suggesting the release and fall.
By the way, I wonder why the order to choose a number wasn't accompanied by any number. I couldn't vote! I'd have given it a 10.