Through The Dark

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The Art of Poetry Requirements for Writing Assignment #1 Every person faces obstacles and dilemmas throughout their lifetime that conflicts with their moral beliefs. People have different views and teachings that individualizes them from one another. Every person approaches their crisis in a unique matter that reflects upon that individual’s beliefs and views. In the poem "Traveling Through the Dark" by William Stafford, a traveler faces an unexpected problem that forces him to make a decision that conflicts with his judgement and beliefs. The importance of the poem "Traveling Through the Dark" is influenced by William Stafford’s views on a conflicting crisis upon using diction and cunning figurative descriptions that builds anxious uncertainty to readers. The poem opens with the statement “Traveling through the dark I found a deer/ dead on the edge of the Wilson River road” (Knorr 38). The speaker knows that there is a common way to get rid of the dead doe (female deer). The best solution for moving the doe off the road would be “to roll them into the canyon” (Knorr 38). The last sentence of the first stanza explains that it is necessary to move the doe off the road because the next driver traveling through the dark would not swerve off the road “that road is narrow; to swerve might make more dead” (Knorr 38). The narrator is driving on the road when he stumbles across a dead doe. The speaker knows that he must dump the doe into the canyon so that another driver crossing through would not “swerve” into it. At this point, it is clear that the narrator has decided to get rid of the doe. However, Stafford throws in a unique stanza "By glow of the tail-light I stumbled back of the car/ and she was large in the belly"(Knorr 38). The phrase “stumbled,” illustrates that the speaker has hesitated and that he has discovered something new (Traveling Through The
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