My Favorite Poem In The Packet

My favorite poem from the poetry packet is Traveling through the Dark by William E. Stafford. Its power lies in its ability to reveal the perpetrations we commit in the name of convenience. The speaker is driving along a dark, windy, canyon road, when he notices a deer, laying on its side, dead. He stops, examines the deer, finding it pregnant, and noticing the baby still alive in the mother's belly. But he is standing in the road, and the road is narrow. He pushes the deer over the edge of the cliff and drives away.

The speaker shows the reader that he's under pressure to push the deer over the edge in the last paragraph. He describes the rumbling exhaust purring at him, the wilderness watching his every move, and the headlights pointing down the road.

The last two lines are the most crucial:

"I thought hard for us all—my only swerving—, /then pushed her over the edge into the river."

When the speaker adopts the group-think mentality, he strays from the right course. So this poem is a relatable example of the psychology that breeds conformity and the bystander effect. The speaker takes action when he pushed the deer over the edge, but what he's really doing is avoiding it. By shoving the deer over the edge, he avoids having to deal with the mess. And he even avoids having to live with a dirty conscience: he justifies his action by framing himself as a hero, the savior of those who drive on dark, windy roads.

Stafford has a strong message for us all: we need to all consider situations like these and take a firm stance so that want for convenience and the effects of fear don't sway us into taking the "easy way out."