How Stafford’s use diction and syntax reinforces the theme in the poem. The ways the setting and imagery of “Traveling through the Dark” enhances the poem.
In the first two lines of the poem, Stafford uses and enjambment that separates deer from dead, “Traveling through the dark I found a deer dead on the edge of the Wilson River Road”. This makes the first line that makes the poem seem like a description of nature and scenery that a person might see at night, and instantly makes the theme slightly dark and sad. The edge of the road can be connected with life and its many twist and turns, but here it signifies the end of a life. Later when the Speaker says, “It is usually best to roll them into the canyon”, the word “usually” implies that
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he is used to coming across a dead deer at the edge of the road. The tone of the line presents a cold expression toward the situation. In the sixth line of the poem, the deer is described as a “recent killing” and makes it the sight of the deer depressing due to how quick and forced its death was.
Stafford the puts “waiting” in line ten with a pause to state that its future depends on what the speaker does. The word adds tension and makes the reader slowly pace the next line. The speaker then describes the fawns situation with,” alive, still, never to be born”. It presents the reader with the sadness of the live fawn that is calm and motionless, that will not experience the world. Also, it adds the sad truth that it is doomed to die showing us how brief life can be. The fact that the fawn has not been born and is still attached to its dead mother hints at life being related to death. In the fourth stanza, the car then “aims its lowered parking light”, as if it is solemnly looking down. When the speaker hesitates in line twelve, it shows his shock of how complicated his objective has become. In line sixteen, Stafford uses the word “group” not only to represent the speaker, fawn, and doe, but also the nature that is also present around …show more content…
them. The speaker then says,” I could hear the wilderness listen”, this gives the impression that nature is observing him and what he does to resolve the problem. The imagery in this poem is a crucial component in how it delivers its themes.
The first line sets the scene with,” Traveling through the Dark I found a deer dead on the edge of the Wilson River Road” presenting the setting as night-time in the woods away from cities. Already the poem has a creepy atmosphere. In line five,” By the glow of the tail-light” tells us the speaker is using light from the back of his car that does not give him the best vision in the night. When he stands near the doe, it is described as a “heap”, what is now a mound of flesh that used to be a living animal. The animal “had stiffened already, almost cold”, gives the reader a sensory detail of what was left and relates to how unforgiving death can be. In the second and third stanzas, it is almost like the gravity of the situation had drowned out all of the sound for the speaker. After the shock of examining the doe and finding out she was pregnant, he first starts to notice the sight of his cars lights. Then, he notices the soft humming of its engine that calls him back to the reality of what he has to do. He could then “hear the wilderness listen” as if it was waiting for an answer to what he was going to do, silently, and
patiently. The use of syntax and diction that Stafford chooses to use adds to the idea that life is quick, and can easily be ended. Also, the other theme of morality that is present in the poem. The setting adds to the dark and depressing nature of death, and the imagery helps the reader understand the atmosphere that the speaker is in while dealing with this difficult decision.
She elaborates on the traditional act of hunting through a simile: “my mother would lift and lay it in place / like a dead relative” (40-41). The relation to a dead relative shows reverence and respect for the animal. The white judges also observe the practice of “praying, coaxing, and thanking” (42), the dead animal as the speaker describes her mother performing the cultural practice of preparing the meat. Dumont’s use of description adds imagery to the poem as she states, “until we had become it and it had become us” (20), further noting the cultural and spiritual connection with animals. Overall, this incorporation provides the reader with information about the Indigenous culture and
The timeline carries on chronologically, the intense imagery exaggerated to allow the poem to mimic childlike mannerisms. This, subjectively, lets the reader experience the adventure through the young speaker’s eyes. The personification of “sunset”, (5) “shutters”, (8) “shadows”, (19) and “lamplights” (10) makes the world appear alive and allows nothing to be a passing detail, very akin to a child’s imagination. The sunset, alive as it may seem, ordinarily depicts a euphemism for death, similar to the image of the “shutters closing like the eyelids”
This essay is anchored on the goal of looking closer and scrutinizing the said poem. It is divided into subheadings for the discussion of the analysis of each of the poem’s stanzas.
The voice of the speaker in “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” is that of an individual that is stressed out or overwhelmed. He or she just needs to take a mental break from everything and, “stop by the words/to watch [them] fill with snow.” The reader knows that this person needs to take this mental break based upon how long they stay there. He or she stays in the woods so long that their horse “give his harness bells a shake/to ask if there is some mistake.” In other words, the horse is confused; here he stands in these woods “without a farmhouse near [and] the only other sound [he hears, aside from his own bells, are,] the sweep of easy wind and [a] downy flake.” This sense of being overwhelmed, and needing to take a mental break in order to remain sane, is something any reader can relate to, whether they have had a stressful day at work, a parent is using the poem as an example to show a child who has had a temper tantrum that they are being puni...
“Like cattle bought for slaughter.” this simile reveals the awful and crowded conditions that the immigrants are experiencing. The third stanza tells us about the family groups and that they huddled together with blankets ‘Families stood with blankets’ with the parents having to keep a close eye on their children ‘Keeping children by their sides’. ‘Watching pigeons that watched them’ this suggests that the immigrants are fascinated by the natural wildlife, it could be a metaphor for the local people at the station who just stare at the immigrants as they wait for their train. The fourth stanza portrays the fear and uncertainty of these immigrants and also reveals the impact of the whistle. “It was sad to hear” this is the repetition of the opening line of the poem. It seems like this journey was a forced journey that is controlled by man made machines “like a word of command” this represents the whistle, “like a guillotine” the use of simile suggests being cut off a kind of death as a guillotine is an instrument of
The poem's situation is simple, a lone traveler driving along a desolate canyon road spots a felled deer; the traveler, desiring neither to hit the deer, nor by swerving to avoid it, hurtle his car over the canyon precipice, stops his vehicle and proceeds to push the fallen animal over the canyon face, into the river below. As the driver struggles to displace the cold, stiff deer corpse he senses warmth emanating from its abdomen, it's an unborn fawn. Realizing that life remains in the body he had assumed dead, the traveler hesitates. Finally, he pushes the deer, one dead and the other not yet alive, off the road and into the chasm.
Imagery uses five senses such as visual, sound, olfactory, taste and tactile to create a sense of picture in the readers’ mind. In this poem, the speaker uses visual imagination when he wrote, “I took my time in old darkness,” making the reader visualize the past memory of the speaker in “old darkness.” The speaker tries to show the time period he chose to write the poem. The speaker is trying to illustrate one of the imagery tools, which can be used to write a poem and tries to suggest one time period which can be used to write a poem. Imagery becomes important for the reader to imagine the same picture the speaker is trying to convey. Imagery should be speculated too when writing a poem to express the big
Figurative Language in used throughout poems so the reader can develop a further understanding of the text. In “The Journey” the author uses rhythm and metaphors throughout the poem. “...as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of the clouds..”(25-27). The author compares the star burning to finding your voice. Rhythm also develops the theme of the poem because throughout the story rhythm is presented as happy showing growing up and changing for the better is necessary and cheerful. In “The Laughing Heart” the author uses imagery and metaphors to develop the theme throughout the book. “There is a light somewhere. It may not be much light but it beats the darkness”(5-7). Always find the good out of everything, even it
This gives the effect that although there is mass devastation, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel, in this case for the eagle, the leftover remains of a carcass. However, as seen throughout the poem this isn’t the case for everyone and everything as the dead or dying clearly outnumber those prospering from the drought. This further adds to the miserable and discouraging mood of the poem. Other poetic devices are also used during the course of the
In Mary Oliver’s poem “The Black Snake,” the narrator contemplates the cycle of life with the unpredictability of death. Mary Oliver’s work is “known for its natural themes and a continual affirmation of nature as a place of mystery and spirituality that holds the power to teach humans how to value one’s life and one’s place” (Riley). In the poem, The Black Snake, the narrator witnesses a black snake hit by a truck and killed on a road one morning. Feeling sympathy for the snake, the narrator stops, and removes the dead snake from the road. Noting the snake’s beauty, the narrator carries it from the road to some nearby bushes. Continuing to drive, the narrator reflects on how the abruptness of death ultimately revealed how the snake lived his life.
We all have faced challenges that make our lives succeeding difficult, but the way we approach these challenges is what affect us in the long run. In “Annabelle Lee”, by Edgar Allan Poe, “Oranges” by Gary Soto, and “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost they all feature speakers that deal with hardships that they must overcome. The three poets use literary devices to show how they deal with theses challenges along with the struggles that come with it. In “ Annabelle Lee” Poe uses diction to show how the speaker deals with the death of his bride.
Although the little girl doesn’t listen to the mother the first time she eventually listens in the end. For example, in stanzas 1-4, the little girl asks if she can go to the Freedom March not once, but twice even after her mother had already denied her the first time. These stanzas show how the daughter is a little disobedient at first, but then is able to respect her mother’s wishes. In stanzas 5 and 6, as the little girl is getting ready the mother is happy and smiling because she knows that her little girl is going to be safe, or so she thinks. By these stanzas the reader is able to tell how happy the mother was because she thought her daughter would be safe by listening to her and not going to the March. The last two stanzas, 7 and 8, show that the mother senses something is wrong, she runs to the church to find nothing, but her daughter’s shoe. At this moment she realizes that her baby is gone. These stanzas symbolize that even though her daughter listened to her she still wasn’t safe and is now dead. The Shoe symbolizes the loss the mother is going through and her loss of hope as well. This poem shows how elastic the bond between the daughter and her mother is because the daughter respected her mother’s wish by not going to the March and although the daughter is now dead her mother will always have her in her heart. By her having her
Overall, it expresses the love and affection of Collin about this poem. This poem is basically looked at, or listened to, and the rodent tested. Such imagery used in poem supports the central ideas of Collin in poem, that the reading poetry must be, just like a good exploration, a discovery act. The poem has a very conversational effect and scholastic feel in it. First stanza directly linked to the second stanza while the third and fourth stanza of this poem has distinct thoughts in them. Similarly, the six stanzas come in a follow-up way but the mood actually changed in the last two stanzas of the poem. In short, Collin has written this poem in a very special and artistic way which really changes other’s minds about how to better understand a poem by knowing its actual meaning.
The symbolism in the poem paints a ghastly picture of a man’s life, falling apart as he does his best, and worst, to keep it safe from himself. In lines 1 through 8 (stanza one), he gives a brief description of an incident in his life where things have gone wrong. “When the tiger approaches can the fast-fleeting hind/Repose trust in his footsteps of air?/No! Abandoned he sinks in a trance of despair,” He uses these lines to show the lack of control he has over his actions, how his will to change his circumstances has weakened. He is both the hind with the person he is tormenting, and the tiger that
Through alliteration and imagery, Coleridge turns the words of the poem into a system of symbols that become unfixed to the reader. Coleridge uses alliteration throughout the poem, in which the reader “hovers” between imagination and reality. As the reader moves through the poem, they feel as if they are traveling along a river, “five miles meandering with a mazy motion” (25). The words become a symbol of a slow moving river and as the reader travels along the river, they are also traveling through each stanza. This creates a scene that the viewer can turn words into symbols while in reality they are just reading text. Coleridge is also able to illustrate a suspension of the mind through imagery; done so by producing images that are unfixed to the r...