Traveling Through The Dark by William Stafford | Poems Rethabile Likes
"Traveling Through The Dark"
by William Stafford
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William Stafford's "Traveling Through The Dark" is one of the most anthologized American poems of the 20th century. It tells the story of a driver who encounters a dead deer on a dark mountain road — and discovers she is pregnant with a fawn still alive.
The poem is a quiet, devastating meditation on moral choice, nature, and the weight of decision. The driver must choose between pushing the deer into the canyon (clearing the road) or leaving it — knowing the fawn will die either way. The poem's final line — "I thought hard for us all" — lingers long after reading.
The first time I read this poem I was struck by the thuds in the poem: 'Traveling through the dark I found a deer / dead on the edge of the Wilson River road. / It is usually best to roll them into the canyon: / that road is narrow; to swerve might make more dead.
Here is the poem in full:
Traveling through the dark I found a deer
dead on the edge of the Wilson River road.
It is usually best to roll them into the canyon:
that road is narrow; to swerve might make more dead.
By glow of the tail-light I stumbled back of the car
and stood by the heap, a doe, a recent killing;
she had stiffened already, almost cold.
I dragged her off; she was large in the belly.
My fingers touching her side brought me the reason —
her side was warm; her fawn lay there waiting,
alive, still, never to be born.
Beside that mountain road I hesitated.
The car aimed ahead its lowered parking lights;
under the hood purred the steady engine.
I stood in the glare of the warm exhaust turning red;
around our group I could hear the wilderness listen.
I thought hard for us all — my only swerving —,
then pushed her over the edge into the river.
Stafford's voice is calm, understated, and utterly clear — a voice that trusts the reader to feel the weight of the decision without being told how to feel.
— Rethabile
William Stafford reading "Traveling Through The Dark"
In this video, William Stafford reads his poem "Traveling Through The Dark." His voice is calm and steady as he recounts the story of a driver who finds a dead deer on a mountain road and discovers she is pregnant with a fawn still alive. The poem explores moral choice, nature, and the weight of decision.
Video source: YouTube. Duration approximately 2 minutes.
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