Traveling through the Dark

Although William Stafford’s poem appears to be dominated by the gruesome discovery of the dead pregnant deer, the dominant presence in the poem is the speaker. Thus, while the poem is concerned with how humanity often disastrously interacts with nature, it is also about the role of the poet. Stafford frequently acknowledged that the poem’s subject matter is drawn from personal experience: He had come upon a dead pregnant doe driving along Wilson River Road and had opted to clear the highway. The speaker/poet explores the impact of blind chance and a darkening world where accountability and responsibility are at best ironic, at worst a dangerous illusion.

Stafford plays on traditional assumptions about the figure of the poet. In sharing his encounter with the deer, Stafford does not offer wisdom: The experience does not end with the clarity of a tidy epiphany that he might offer to his reader, such as would be featured in an insightful volta, for example. Rather, the poet merely observes the speaker pondering the dilemma of the unborn fawn and coming to understand he really has no decision. The poet leaves the speaker helpless, confused, and vulnerable; his ultimate choice is to leave the makeshift community he has created with the doe and rejoin humanity.