Traveling Through the Dark

Summary

Discussion questions: 

1. There are many descriptions that are included about the car that are symbolic to the overall meaning of the poem. First the car is described with the glow of the tail light and the lowered parking lights. These sybolize a sign of respect for the deer's death. It almost draws an image of the car bowing down to the death and taking a moment to remember the life. Also the puring shows a sign of love. This can be seen when cats are comfortable and want to show affection for their owners. All of these symbols show that the author is humbled by the recent killing. 

2. The tone of this poem could be described as sentimental. The speaker takes the time to pause and care for the deer. Many would not do this. He also shows reverence to the deer's life by pausing before he thoughs it off the cliff. He dosent speak with very harsh consents so there is a very mellow tone which shows his warmth for treating the loss of life with respect. It would be more of a detached tone because he dosent feel very much emotion in regards to the deer. Not sentimental because he does not regard it with found memories. 

3. Only having two lines in the last stanza shows that there is a pause between just throughing the deer over the edge. I feel like the two lines are very important to show that in reality he had to move on with his life and he couldn't spend forever morning over this small loss. 

4. I feel like the title of the poem is very approiate for the work. He is simply traveling and then sees this deer and feels the need to stop for it. The phrase fumbling in the dark is very common when a person is at a loss of what to do. The fact that he is traveling through the dark means that he is struggling with knowing what to do with this deer. The speaker is thinking hard for us all by taking time to send regards to the deer from humanity as a whole. These are kind and in reference to the deer.