There Are Many Important Elements Included in a Piece of Literature That Allow the Particular

Lauren Twigg

9-19-07

ENGL200

Paper #1

A Dark Poem

There are many important elements included in a piece of literature that allow the particular piece of literature to provide meaning meant to be interpreted by the reader. One important element affecting a particular piece of literature is its tone. Tone creates mood and effect in a piece of work, which is an important part of a particular piece of literature as a whole. One piece of literature in which the tone is easily interpreted is the poem, “Traveling Through the Dark” by William Stafford.

In the poem “Traveling Through the Dark”, the tone is easily interpreted as being hopeless. The attitude of the main character, as well as the whole situation in general has a hopeless feel because the situation involves death before life. Death before life, meaning the fawn dying before it is even born. The main character of the poem, who discovers this dead, pregnant doe on the side of the road, sets the tone of the first person poem, by first stating, “…had stiffened already, almost cold”. The reader gets a morbid sense through the words “stiffened” and “cold”, because these words are both associated with death. Since death creates a sense of hopelessness in the lives of anyone who experiences it, the reader is able to feel this hopeless tone through the poem.

The hopeless tone, becomes stronger when the main character or writer of the poem writes, “her fawn lay there waiting”. Not only does the reader imagine a fawn seeing his or her own mother die, but the reader is also left to picture the lonely life the fawn might have ahead without its mother. This does nothing more but prove the hopeless tone of the poem.

The poem grows more hopeless when the reader discovers that this fawn will never be born. The phrase that shows this is, “alive, …never to be born”. Because there is no hope for this unborn fawn, a sense of sadness is added to the tone of the poem. The mother of the fawn has done nothing to deserve her death and her fawn especially has done nothing to deserve this death before even being born. Hopelessness is created by also knowing that this fawn, who relies on his or her mother, is brought to death only because he or she has relied on his or her mother, not because he or she has asked for this death.

Finally, the end to the hopelessness of the poem occurs in the last phrase which states, “…pushed her over the edge into the river”. Because there is so much of a lack of hope, the main character is left to do nothing but push the doe into the river, instead of leaving it on the side of the road. This phrase ends the poem, leaving the reader with a feeling of sadness.

Because of these four phrases, it is easy to see how this poem shows absolutely no happiness and no hope. These four phrases most definitely create a morbid, sad, hopeless tone. Without these phrases, the poem could have taken a whole different direction. The author provides the poem with straightforward phrases which easily create its specific tone. Tone is an important element that creates the overall feeling of a piece of literature. It has a large affect upon the reader and allows a particular piece of literature to express what it is meant to express to the reader.