Despite the fact both poems use first person narration, the speakers connect to the death of the animals very differently. In “Traveling through the Dark,” the narration emphasizes the development of a responsible emotionally conflicted speaker who possesses compassion. “It is usually best to roll them into the canyon: / that road is narrow; to swerve might make more dead” (Stafford ll. 3-4), demonstrate the narrator´s responsibility and compassion for human life. “I thought hard for us all ― my only swerving ―” (Stafford l. 17), represents the speaker’s rationality for killing the doe, which is that it could endanger the lives of other drivers. Unlike, the speaker of ¨Woodchucks¨ the narrator of ¨Traveling through the Dark¨ is emotionally
