Traveling Through The Dark And Woodchucks Essay

The poems “Traveling through the Dark” by William Stafford and “Woodchucks” by Maxine Kumin portray clashing perspectives on the importance of animals. In the poem “Traveling through the Dark,” a narrator grapples with the decision of pushing a pregnant, but deceased deer over the side of a road. While in the second poem “Woodchucks” a seemingly deranged woman goes on a killing spree to eliminate a family of woodchucks from her garden. Although Stafford and Kumin both use literary devices to reveal how humans value the lives of animals, the different viewpoints of the poems are emphasized through the use of diction and structure.

Both authors utilize diction to express the separate tones of the poems. In “Traveling through the Dark” there is a solemn and contemplative tone, but a blunt and aggressive tone is seen in “Woodchucks.” Much of the difference in the tone is due to word choice used within the poems. In “Traveling through the Dark” there are no unnecessary words used, this gives the poem the appearance of being well-thought out. When the

In “Traveling through the Dark” the narrator thinks upon the ramifications of saving a fawn still within its mother’s womb at the expense of human lives. Contrasting with the violent slaughter of a family of woodchucks that the narrator in “Woodchucks” seems to causally carry-out. Even though the two poems show two opposing interpretations of the human psyche, the narrators in each choose human life ultimately over the lives of the animals within the poems. While certain humans care more or less about other creatures in nature, actions of the two narrators illustrates how humans place their lives above those of other animals. The use of literary devices such as diction and structure allows to help readers identify the relationship been humans and animals that both authors try to