The Car

Here again, just like with the dark and the road, in the primary reading of the poem the car is just a car. Stafford is not trying to fool anyone. But in the way the car is described, with the imagery that Stafford uses, we can also find metaphorical significance. Okay, so it isn't like KITT from Knight Rider, but it does play an important part in the metaphorical reading of the poem.

• Line 5: The car's first appearance doesn't seem very significant, but it is "by glow of the [car's] tail-light" that the speaker first sees the dead doe. Remember, it is nighttime on a mountain road. There are no streetlights to illuminate the scene. The only light source in all that wild darkness is the car's red tail-light. The image of the speaker and the dead doe washed in the eerie red tail-light sets the tone for the rest of the poem.
• Lines 13-15: The red tail-light is aimed behind the car at the speaker and the dead deer. The parking lights are "aimed ahead," further down the road of life. The eyes of the car are focused on the road of life—on living. The personification of the car, the "purring engine" below the hood, makes us think of the car as a living thing. The engine gives it life, making us think of a steady, beating heart—the one that beats in the driver and still beats in the doomed fawn.
  The speaker stands in the "warm exhaust." With the earlier personification, the exhaust makes us think of exhaling into the cold night air and seeing our breath. The car represents life, the living. It's an interesting choice of metaphor, considering the car is the only mechanical thing in the poem. Having a mechanical element represent the living gets more attention. It's unexpected and way more interesting. We've all seen trees and flowers and birds work as metaphors for life and nature. The fact that Stafford can make a car work this way is pretty cool, right? Right?