Ralph Waldo Emerson, a profound author and Harvard graduate, once said, “to be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”  Individuality is the ultimate achievement, especially in a situation where society consistently holds you back.  This idea of diverting from conformity directly relates to Mary Oliver’s poem “The Journey”, which centralizes around the passage through life and the multiple problems you face along the way.  Oliver uses several literary elements throughout her poem, such as repetition, personification, and diction to express the importance of individuality. 

While trying to demonstrate the importance of avoiding conformity, Oliver uses repetition to maintain focus with the reader.  She begins the poem by saying, “One day you finally knew / what you had to do,” and continues to include that phrase at the end of each stanza (line 1-2).  By repeating this statement throughout the poem, Oliver emphasizes the idea of individuality.  In this context, Oliver uses the literary device to exemplify the necessity of finding yourself.  As the poem develops, Oliver modifies the line by saying that the reader is now, “determined to do / the only thing [the reader] could do” (33-34).  By adjusting the phrase at the end of the poem, Oliver has now solidified her main point: it is mostly important “to save” your own life instead of conforming to the lives of others (36).  The use of repetition, especially in this poem, enhances the gravity of the tone and the purpose of the poem.  

Oliver uses personification throughout her poem to connect the environment around her to the main point, the importance of individuality.  By giving human characteristics to nonhuman objects, Oliver emphasizes the serious mood of the poem.  She incorporates these strong action verbs throughout her poem to appeal to the reader.  For example, when “the whole house / began to tremble”, the reader immediately understands both the unnerving and serious feelings that the author is trying to portray (6-7).  The quaking foundation of the house emphasizes that the place where the reader should find comfort is unstable as well.  The author writes these lines to show the harmful effects that society has on people, ones strong enough to tear your house down. Likewise, “the wind pried / with its stiff fingers” in an attempt to hold you back from achieving your goals (14-15).  Oliver gives the wind humanlike qualities, stiff fingers, to relate a struggle in life to a person who is pulling you back.  In this context, the wind represents the society that is forcefully dragging you into conformity and away from individuality.  By giving the wind the ability to pry, she reinforces the serious tone with a word that generally has a negative connotation.  Towards the end, Oliver reaches the turning point in the poem when she writes, “the stars began to burn” because this is the time that the reader first experiences individuality.  Oliver gives the stars the ability to burn, which adds a positive light to the poem.  By incorporating personification into the poem, Oliver simplifies the understanding of the tone because she gives nonhuman things, humanlike traits.  

While writing her poem, Oliver carefully focuses on diction and syntax to convey the importance of individuality.  The different words evoke positive and negative feelings from the reader to support the tone.  For instance, Oliver uses the word “had” several times throughout the poem; in doing so, she creates a serious, commanding tone (2).  This word does not give the reader the opportunity to choose what he or she wants to do because there is a direct obligation.  Similarly, Oliver uses active verbs to evoke strong feelings and clear visualizations.  Words such as “tug” and “[pry]” imply a struggle or hardship because these words usually have a negative connotation to describe a time that someone encounters a challenge (8, 14).  As the poem progresses and Oliver reaches the climax, the word “strode” is used.  Compared to words in prior parts of the poem, this word stands out.  While the beginning of the poem has a more serious and upsetting feel, the ending has a much more confident, assertive tone.  By using these strong words, Oliver can explain the difficulty in separating yourself from society and becoming an individual.  

Overall, Mary Oliver incorporates the use of personification, repetition, and diction into her poem “The Journey” to emphasize the importance of individuality.  By using personification, Oliver gives inanimate objects, humanlike qualities to help clarify the struggles that people face in life.  Additionally, her use of repetition enhances the main point, the importance of individuality, by continuously repeating the first line.  Lastly, the diction throughout this poem has a significant effect on the tone because she beings choosing words with caution, those that inspire fear and trepidation, but as the work progresses, the darkness lifts and the reader becomes inspired to forge ahead into the world.
