Drinking While Driving

Drinking While Driving: analysis

Introduction

"Drinking While Driving" is a short free-verse poem in one stanza. The speaker rides in a car with a brother, drinking whiskey, with nowhere in particular to go. The speaker admits to having read almost nothing for months.

Even so, the speaker says, "Nevertheless, I am happy." The calm is shadowed by a wish to "sleep forever / beside this road." The poem ends on a line of waiting: "Any minute now, something will happen." It is a poem about drift, contentment and a danger that is never named.

Summary

The speaker opens by giving the month: "It's August." The speaker has not read a book in six months. The one exception is a book called The Retreat from Moscow, by Caulaincourt. The admission is stated flatly, without explanation.

The speaker then says, "Nevertheless, I am happy." The happiness comes from riding in a car with a brother. The speaker is drinking from a pint of Old Crow. The two have no destination in mind and are "just driving."

The speaker reflects on the moment. If the speaker closed both eyes for a minute, the speaker would be lost. Yet the speaker could "gladly lie down and sleep forever" beside the road they are on. The two thoughts sit side by side.

The last two lines return to the car. The brother nudges the speaker. The poem ends with the statement, "Any minute now, something will happen." The poem does not say what that something is.

Themes and meaning

The first theme is contentment without purpose. The speaker has stopped reading and has no plan. The two men have no "place in mind to go." Yet the speaker insists on being happy. The word "Nevertheless" in line 5 admits that this happiness goes against the facts just listed.

A second theme is the pull toward death or oblivion. Line 12 says the speaker "could gladly lie down and sleep forever." The phrase "sleep forever" is a common way of speaking of death. The place is "beside this road," in a car where someone is drinking. The poem does not state a death wish, but the words allow that reading.

A third theme is retreat. The only book the speaker has read is The Retreat from Moscow. That title names a defeated army falling back. Set in this poem, it can be read as a mirror of the speaker's own withdrawal from reading, work and direction. The poem makes no comment on the link, so it remains a suggestion.

A fourth theme is waiting. The final line, "Any minute now, something will happen," can be read two ways. It may be hopeful, the sense that life is about to change. It may also be ominous, given the whiskey, the closed eyes and the road. The poem stops before either is confirmed.

A quieter theme is companionship. The brother is present throughout and shares the drive. His nudge in line 14 is the only action in the poem. It may simply wake the speaker, or it may mark the start of whatever is coming.

Tone

The tone is relaxed, flat and confiding. The speaker talks plainly, in the voice of someone recounting an ordinary afternoon. There is no alarm in the words, even about drinking in a car.

Beneath the calm there is unease. The admission about not reading sounds slightly guilty. "Nevertheless" shows the speaker knows the happiness needs defending. The wish to "sleep forever" is said "gladly," which makes it more troubling, not less.

The last line shifts the tone toward expectancy. "Any minute now" has a restless, almost eager ring. Whether the feeling is hope or foreboding is left open. The poem ends suspended between them.

Form and structure

The poem has 15 lines in 1 stanza. It is free verse with no metre. Lines run from 2 to 13 syllables, and the short line "by Caulaincourt" is the briefest.

There is almost no rhyme. The one clear pair is "Crow" and "go" at the ends of lines 7 and 8. Much of the poem is enjambed, as in "I have not / read a book," so sentences spill across lines. Lines 10 to 13 form one long sentence that turns on "yet."

Poetic devices

Enjambment line 1

It's August and I have not The line breaks after "not," so the reader waits to learn what the speaker has not done. The confession arrives on the next line.

Allusion line 3

The Retreat from Moscow The title points to an account of an army's disastrous retreat. It lends the speaker's own drifting a hint of defeat.

Concession line 5

Nevertheless, I am happy The word "Nevertheless" admits that the facts so far do not support happiness. The speaker claims it anyway.

Concrete detail line 7

drinking from a pint of Old Crow The brand name and the bottle size make the scene exact. They also make the drinking impossible to overlook, given the title.

Rhyme line 8

any place in mind to go "go" rhymes with "Crow" in line 7, the only clear rhyme in the poem. It ties the drinking to the aimless driving.

Juxtaposition line 11

I would be lost, yet The fear of being lost is set against the wish to sleep. The word "yet" turns the sentence from one feeling to its opposite.

Euphemism line 12

sleep forever The phrase is a familiar way of naming death. Said "gladly," it hints at a wish for oblivion without stating it.

Ambiguity line 15

Any minute now, something will happen. The line can be heard as hope or as warning. Ending here leaves the reader waiting with the speaker.

Words worth knowing

Caulaincourt

Armand de Caulaincourt, a French general and diplomat who served Napoleon and wrote memoirs of Napoleon's retreat from Russia.

Old Crow

A brand of American bourbon whiskey.

pint

Here, a pint-sized bottle of liquor, small enough to drink from in a car.

Context

Raymond Carver lived from 1938 to 1988. "Drinking While Driving" has been on americanpoems.com since 2004. Readers left 9 comments on it between 2004 and 2011.

What readers have said

• Tommy calls the poem a depressing reminder of nihilism and emptiness, lacking the force of Carver's short stories. Tommy, 2004
• adrienne m. hribko answers that the word "Nevertheless" is the key. This reader sees the speaker relishing the moment, against whatever shortcomings surround it. adrienne m. hribko, 2004
• Bruce sides with that reading and tells the first commenter to look deeper. Bruce, 2004
• Keefo grants that Carver is not an intellectually difficult writer, but argues the poem offers simple thought with deep meaning. Keefo, 2005
• Tia Hazel reads the poem as a warning that drinking and driving can hurt someone who did nothing wrong. Tia Hazel, 2006