Travelling Through the Dark
William Stafford
“Travelling Through the Dark” is a
short beautiful poem composed by William Stafford. The poem is about making
decision between two realities of life: efficiency and responsibility on one
hand and emotion and sentiment on the other. So, it is about dilemma we face in
life while making decision. Responsibility is dry and unglamorous virtue
whereas emotion is warmer than responsibility. The poet has tried to present
the idea that decision made on the basis of responsibility and efficiency is
always the best and practical whereas emotional or sentimental decision is
impractical which shows human weakness. The poem also deals on the relationship
between the nature and human beings and their activities. Because of our own
activities we are over exploiting the nature and travelling towards the dark
future.
POEM
The poem has been written in the first
person narrative. While the poet is travelling alone through the dark he sees a
dead deer on the edge of Wilson river road. He stops his car and moves back to
see the deer. He later knows that it is a doe and has an unborn fawn in its
belly. Now he shows sympathy to the doe. This is one system of life. In one
system he has sympathy to the dead doe and in the next system: he feels his
responsibility that he has to clear the road throwing the dead doe in the
gorges. When the speaker touches the dead doe, he finds that the doe is
pregnant and her fawn is waiting inside her womb. The fawn is alive. Though it
is alive, it will never be born. He feels his mistake and feels pity on the
fawn and becomes sad. He realizes the fate of the fawn inside the dead doe. He
now finds a contrast between the doe and his car. His car looks life – life
where as the doe is cold and stiff. The poet is in dilemma. He thinks different
possible course of actions. The physical action ceases at this point and is
replaced by the mental action. He starts thinking about the suitable way out.
He finds himself in conflict between the practical and the sentimental
decision. At last, the speaker pushes the doe into the gorges and solves the
problem. The great tension of the dead doe and the living but never to be born
fawn is now solved. On the other hand there are efficiency and responsibility
and on the other hand there are emotions warmer than efficiency and
responsibility and deeper than good judgment. In this way the poem gives full
justice to both sides of the tension.
A Story
A story is a sort story by Dylan Thomas. The story humorously presents the adult’s world from a boy’s perspective (point of view).
A story is all about a day’s outing by a small boy made with his uncle and his friends, by Charabanc to Porthcawl where they never reached. The boy was staying with his uncle and aunt. There was a great contrast between his uncle and aunt. His uncle was a huge man who used to fill every inch of the hot little house like an old buffalo squeezed into an airing cupboard but on the other hand his aunt whom he prefers to say his uncle’s wife, was small, quiet, and efficient and was like a mouse. She walked quietly like a mouse and got all her work done. The uncle was very big and trumpeting and ate greedily, littering his waistcoat. The aunt was so small that she could hit the uncle on his head only if his uncle lifted her onto a chair and on his arms. The argument between them was quiet common and comic to the boy. Despite the quarrel, the love existed between them. His aunt didn’t like the outing. When they talked about outing she used to be angry. She threatened her husband that she would go to her mother’s house if he went on the outing. However, he did not care for it because it was not new for him.
His uncle and his uncle’s friend used to make an annual all-male outing. That particular year Mr. Benjamin Franklyn was a treasurer who was watched and followed every time by Will Sentry. Will Sentry followed him because he didn’t feel the outing fund safe with Franklyn.
The narrator got a chance to go for the outing with his uncle and his friends who were all noisy, filthy, vulgar, dirty, and drunkards and full of strange behaviors. It was a beautiful August morning as the thirty odd men set out for the trip to Porthcawl missing Old O. Jones behind. The trip was delayed as they drove back to pick old O. Jones. Again Mr. Weazley cried, “I left my teeth” and asked them to go home to take his teeth. However, they did not return saying that his teeth were not necessary in the journey. As they reached the first inn, the Mountain Sheep, they stopped the Charbanc and went inside leaving the boy outside to watch the Charbanc. The master of the public house welcomed them as the wolf welcomes the sheep. Everyone was drunk inside. The boy found them behaving worse than animals.
In the inn, they continued noise and argued each other. The boy had nothing to do so he chased the cows with stone. They, then, left the inn. Then they stopped at different pub houses on the way and were completely pickled. On the way they reached near a river. They liked the cool water of the river. In the river, some of them slipped the stone. It was a better place than Porthcawl. All of them were there and they were drunk. They didn’t have any idea how the world was going on. It was evening. They cancelled the trip to Porthcawl and returned towards home. On the way home, Mr. Weazley coughed and they stopped the Charbanc and drank the remaining cases of beers making a circle.
In fact, the purpose of the outing was to drink and making merry without the care of the world. Therefore, they stopped at every inn and public house until, by dusk, all the men were pickled. Some were shouting, some laughing, splashing in the water and dancing. None cared for food except Mr. O. Jones. They never reached their destination as everybody decided to stop at an open space for more drinks and merrymaking. The narrator, the small boy, was tired and hungry who fell asleep under his uncle’s waistcoat. The moon was already up. Thus, the story ends abruptly.
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