Compare And Contrast Woodchucks And Traveling Through The Dark

Those who’ve had pets die have either reacted two ways, balling out crying or not bothered at all maybe a little happy you no longer had to pick up their poop. Although, you may not have killed your pet, there is a similar response in the poems “Woodchucks” and “Traveling Through the Dark”. Within both poems, the speakers show remorse for the dead animals they encounter, however, the speaker in Kumin's poem shows more aggression and nuanced frustrations towards animals. Collectively the authors use imagery, syntax, and personification to show their distinct relationship with animals. Stafford, the author of “Traveling Through the Dark”, uses imagery to show the deep appreciation for the two lives the speaker stumbles upon, a dead doe and her unborn fawn. The last line of the poem states,”... pushed her over the edge into the river”(Stafford l.18). The image shown to the audience mimics the holy act of baptizing even the Hindu tradition of putting things into the Ganges River. The narrator doesn’t just leave the doe on the side of the road or do what’s best and “roll them into the canyon:”(Stafford l.3). He takes the extra step of pushing her into the river to protect her body from the disgrace of decay and

For example, Kumin says “She/ flip-flopped in the air and fell, her needle teeth”(Kumin ll. 19-20). Even in the death of a mother, similar to Stafford's encounter, Kumins portrays the woodchuck as violent and a combative monster. Not only that but the lines that follow “still hooked in a leaf of early Swiss Chard” (Kumin l. 21). As the mother woodchuck lays there dead she is eating produced, that has been grown and cared for but wasn’t ready and still had time to grow. Even in death Kumin continues to show the mother woodchuck as a relentless monster. Which shouts out his frustration and anger with the woodchucks for eating his