Eurydice

Female deer, called does, reoccur throughout "Eurydice." The speaker opens with a deer shot in the heart. Their lover's name makes them envision a dead doe in the moonlight. The poem ends on hooves.

Hunters commonly target deer, making the deer an apt symbol for marginalized groups trying to avoid persecution. Deer frequently travel through backyards and gardens. When the speaker says they "kept walking through the hole / in the garden" (Lines 8-9), they subtly compare them to deer moving through that space.

Vuong makes the deer inherently tragic. They appear as omens: "It's more like the sound / a doe makes / when the arrowhead replaces the day" (Lines 1-4). The speaker says they and their companion saw it coming. However, they make the statement ominous by adding "but" (Line 7). The “but” signals a disconnect between their knowledge and choice while emphasizing its importance to events later in the poem. Later, the speaker compares their lover's name to a dead deer right before gravity breaks their knees, and denounces love.

The poem's final lines reverse the image order, with the tragedy coming before the deer imagery. This decision drives home that the deer represents love's end and a disconnect between lovers.