"Traveling Through the Dark" by William Stafford was published in 1962. This poem has no consistent line length; there is also no specific rhyme scheme. One characteristic I found in this poem is the similarity between some of the words. Some of the words have the same sounds such as lines five and seven: "By glow of the tail-light I stumbled back of the car.../she had stiffened already, almost cold" (Stafford 155), the words "car" and "cold" both have the C sound. I have found the same similarity between sounds in other lines also.

"Traveling Through the Dark" is about a man's hesitation to give life to a fawn. This man swerves on the road when he spots a dead deer that is basically lying in the middle of the road. The man gets out with intentions to move the deer so other cars would not swerve like he...