Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- How would this poem be different if the driver found the deer in the daytime?
- Stanzas 1-4 are all quatrains (four lines), but the final stanza is a couplet (two lines). Why do you think Stafford chose this structure? Why quatrains? Why switch to a couplet in the last stanza? What would be different if the poem had been written in one long stanza?
- In the poem, the speaker finds a dead deer along a narrow mountain road. Consider some other setting-animal combinations (e.g., desert/jackrabbit). Do these new combinations suggest any new themes?
- The speaker is driving alone at night when he encounters the deer. How would this poem change if the speaker was with a friend? An enemy? His wife? A child?
- How does the speaker's matter-of-fact, unemotional voice affect the poem? Do you think a more dramatic, more emotional tone would improve the poem or hurt it?