Travelling Through The Dark Written By William Stafford

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DISSCUSSION
‘Travelling through the dark’ is a poem written by William E Stafford. The title travelling in the dark makes the reader understand that the poet was travelling in the night and the dark night atmosphere highlights the jeopardy of the situation. The poem describes how the poet was moved by the death of a pregnant doe while he was driving a car along the mountain road at night. At the side of Wilson River he saw a deer. The road was narrow so he thought it was best if the deer moved into the side of the river, she was a doe and had recently been killed. Later on he pushed it into the river. The poem takes place at night just as the title suggests as we also find the car’s headlights are later in the poem. However metaphorically, the poem reveals modern men living in the age of science and technology are the ones travelling through the dark night and they barely realize that the safety of human beings lies in the harmonious co-existence between nature and man.
‘Travelling through the night’ also refers to the ignorant, insensitive, and unmindful people who are heading meaningless tasks and putting more emphasis on their own work and belittling the importance. The central idea of the poem is the conflict that goes on in the human mind like responsibility or duty. In the poem, the speaker is in a dilemma as he is made to think deeply whether to save the unborn fawn for which he is not responsible. Unfortunately he does nothing, and unthinkably pushes the Doe into the river.
This is a piece that depicts the conflict between the human mind and the human heart that is the conflict of the mind, the compassion, emotions and the sense of responsibility. The main theme in this poem is conflict...