Traveling through the Dark by William Stafford - Dissertation Example

Death and Dead Object: A Common Imagery Unlike other literary forms, poetry plays on the language itself – the choice of words, rhythm and how they sound seem to create a musical pattern to our ears. Much like as it creates one of the most important and basic elements of poetry called “Imagery” that we are able to understand what symbolism and comparison does a poet suggests to. In his poem Traveling through the Dark, William Stafford skilfully applies a dramatic lyric for he creates a scene much like a storyteller and playwright do.

He clearly defines the characters (I, deer), as well as the setting that happened during night time at the Wilson River road (Giles, “Stafford’s”). Similarly, Derek Walcott’s A Far Cry from Africa and Emily Dickinson’s Because I Could Not Stop for Death both suggest a dramatic lyrical style because its characters, setting and conflicts are clearly defined. Moreover, the three poems evidently discuss death and dead object as its key subject. Stafford uses words such as “…a deer / dead on the edge of the Wilson River road” (line 1, 2) while Walcott’s poem describes “Corpses are scattered through a paradise / […] / ‘Waste no compassion on these separate dead!

’” (line 4, 6) and Dickinson writes in “Because I could not stop for Death, / He kindly stopped for me” (line 1, 2), all of which plainly and clearly suggest death much like as we can deduce the speaker’s state of mind and reflection as he faces every crisis and conflict. Work Cited Giles, Ronald K. “Stafford’s Traveling Through The Dark.” Questia – The Online Library of Books and Journals. N.p., 2010. Web. 20 Nov. 2010.