Traveling Through The Dark Poem Analysis

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“You have to make choices even when there is nothing to choose from.” This words from Peter Zilahy perfectly describes making a decision whether there is a choice or not, but making a decision means it will have a consequence. In William E. Stafford’s “Travelling through the Dark” presents readers with the difficulty of making a decision. One night, he was travelling along a mountain street under which the Wilson Water, he discovered a corpse of a doe and he decided to push the doe’s corpse into the river, but moving closer to the corpse of the doe was still warm on its belly indicated there is still a fawn in her, waiting to be born. After thinking for a while, he decided to push the doe’s corpse into the flowing Wilson Water to ensure safety of other motorists. Stafford wrote this poem as a free verse, the lines in this poem involves variations of rhythm here and there. There are a few imperfect rhymes that are implanted with consonance and assonance such as ‘engine’ and ‘listen’ and ‘killing’ and ‘belly’. This poem is easily understandable and the title of the poem makes one comprehend that the poet is travelling in the night. Symbolic elements were used throughout this poem to emphasize its theme, “Travelling through the Dark”. Thinking of “travelling”, the first idea that gets into our mind will be going from one place to another, but not loitering. The “darkness” in the title unclear because there is not much detailed information attached to it. The unborn fawn in