Traveling Through the Dark Essay Example for Free

travelling Through the Dark EssayWhen reading a poem for the first time, it is fairly easy to view it on a literal level. Nonetheless, after analyzing the purpose, tone, tidings choice, and figures of speech and how they simultaneously work together, the commentator is hit with a whole new perception of the poem. William Staffords Traveling through the Dark holds this characteristic. The poem is near a man driving on a designate road at night and his internal conflict triggered by an encounter with a dead deer along the road. He immediately leaves his railway car and walks toward the deer with the intention of rolling it into the canyon. However, when he discovers that this deer has an unhatched flex, the man is struck with an instant conflict. Does he push the deer off into the canyon? Or does he leave it alone and have the fawn while endangering the lives of others that will travel this narrow road?Stafford uses a mans simple confrontation with a deer as an instrument for conveying a deeper message about nature. He comes across a dead deer, and without hesitation, plans to push it into the canyon. This clearly indicates that the speaker holds no emotions whatsoever for the deer. Then, a conversational tone is thrown into the mix. The narrator is sharing and guiding the readers through his experience. He gives advice in demarcation four, It is usu each(prenominal)y best to roll them into the canyon. This supports his informal attitude and establishes a relationship with the reader in hopes of allowing the reader to feel the way he does.Several symbolic elements emphasize the theme of Traveling through the Dark, all within the last three stanzas of the poem. The first symbol, an unborn fawn. The fawn represents the future of nature in the changing world. Although the mother, or nature in present time, has been killed the fawn still waits alive, still, never to be born (11). The fawn waits in hope that it will live to breathe air, in the hope tha t the speaker will save it. However, technology is also competing for the speakers attention. The first three lines of the fourth stanza make the idling car into a mechanized beast that kills nature. Some details about this mechanized beast are on lines thirteen to fifteen where the car aimed ahead (13) its lights, purred (14) its steady, idling railway locomotive, and emitting warm exhaust turning red (15).The terce and final symbol is revealed only in the last stanza. On line seventeen, I thought stiff for us all exhibits the fact that the speaker is representative of all mankind. The speaker represents mankind coming roughly the curve in the dark. He symbolizes mankind being caught in the struggle between nature and technology. reputation in the form of a dead doe is portrayed as an object worthy of grace while the mechanical beast is a ruthless image. Among the various descriptions relating to the dead doe, the most conspicuous is of her being large in the belly (8). The h eap, a doe (6) describes the speakers first impression of the new-fashioned killing.Aside from those two images, the other description of the doe correlates to the sense of touch the speaker notices that that the does side was warm (10) after brushing finger against her fur. Stafford describes the car with regards to three of the bodys quintette senses. The car is described as having its lights lowered (13) or dimmed, casting the scene in shadows. The steady purring emitted from the engine appeals to the speakers sense of hearing. Warm exhaust (16) caresses the speaker, stimulating the speakers sense of touch.