|
|
 |
|
|
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.
William Stafford
| Submitted Date |
: |
Monday, January 13, 2003 |
|
|
Read poems about / on: car, river, dark, red, light, travel
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Comments about this poem (Traveling Through The Dark
by
William Stafford
) |
|
|
Kadeja Bailey (1/24/2010 10:27:00 AM)
|
|
|
|
the speaker is having a moral dilema the poem is about nature and death and the sadness that comes with it
|
|
|
|
Candace Johnson (10/14/2009 1:39:00 PM)
|
|
|
|
That is sooo sad. Why couldn't he save it? ?
|
|
|
|
Carolyn Dimmick (9/6/2008 12:41:00 PM)
|
|
|
|
It is very well written, but very sad. Were it I, I would have saved the yet unborn
|
|
|
|
Nick Capozzoli (8/1/2007 1:28:00 AM)
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
Charley P (6/18/2007 1:44:00 PM)
|
|
|
|
It's a poignant poem but you're right, its not a sonnet. I like it.
|
|
|
|
E F (8/30/2006 4:28:00 PM)
|
|
|
|
A sad poignant moment. A live being lives on beyond and then dies. Almost unbearable
|
|
|
|
David Rogers (4/4/2006 2:18:00 PM)
|
|
|
|
Dude, it's not a sonnet. Sonnets have fourteen lines.
|
|
|
|
Greg Hutchinson (9/18/2005 1:51:00 AM)
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
Read all
11
comments >>
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
Poets
