Kaitlin's English Writing

Traveling through the Dark William Stafford

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.

In English this semester, I have to write journal entries about the poems or short stories that we read. In the Journal, the professor does not want a complete summary of what is about, but instead something deeper that the peom may be arguing. He wants us to try to apply it to something that we all can relate to even today. I love my english class and my professor is great!! Here is what I wrote after reading the poem above.

After reading William Stafford's poem, Traveling through the Dark, I started questioning what the meaning might be for me from this particular poem. Although the poem is about and animal, I think it can relate to one of today's hot topics of abortion, the killing of unborn children.

The poem begins with a traveler noticing a dead deer on the side of the road that was just recently hit by a car. Without hesitation the speaker decides the best thing to do would be to push the deer into the river below in order to clear the narrow road. A shocking discovery is made by feeling the warmth of the doe's belly; she is pregnant. There is life within the dead doe, but yet it will never live. The line, "her fawn lay there waiting, " struck me as the fawn knew nothing yet of the world and was totally dependent on the mother. Without the life of the mother the fawn can be nothing.

The defenselessness of the unborn fawn resembles that of unborn babies. Without their mother, they will never be. In the conclusion of the poem, the speaker says, "I thought hard for us all." "Us, " I believe represents all manking and the fawn for whom the speaker was making the decision. Do abortionists, I wonder, ever feel as if the world is watching them as they end a baby's life, or if they ever think about the life the baby will never life? When the abortion is complete, it is like the part of the poem when the speaker finally decides to push the doe into the river. The baby's life is gone forever and the mother's life more than likely will be a continual struggle. This poem reminds me of how precious life is.