After doing a close reading of “The Journey” by Mary Oliver, I found a much deeper meaning of the poem. The first couple of times I read the poem, it seemed to have no meaning at all. I thought it was just a bunch of random thoughts about voices and nature but as I kept reading it over, it clicked. The title was also very helpful because as I kept reading over the poem I began to see that the title was a symbol for life itself. In my opinion, the poem as a whole suggests that one must live his or her life the way he or she wants to live it and one should not listen to what other people say or do because as individuals, we need to be able to find ourselves first. 

Right away, Mary Oliver is making her point clear that it is easy to be influenced by others when going through one’s journey of life. At the beginning of the poem Oliver says that, “One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice” (92). The voices in this quote symbolize society. Society tries to sway your opinion on everything. I think that when she talks about the voices bad advice she is saying that one must not conform to society and all of the negative influences within a society. One must find their own voice without listening to the other voices around oneself. 

As the poem goes on, the voices continue. In the poem she explains, “the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles. ‘Mend my life!’ each voice cried. But you didn’t stop” (92). I think that when Oliver mentions the old tug at the ankles, I believe that is a past relationship trying to get back into one’s life only for their own sake. When the person screams out, “Mend my life!” I think that is just saying that a lot of people are going to need help with things throughout your life, but sometimes you just have to avoid whatever it is and continue on with your own life. Sometimes it can be hard to say no to the person asking for help. A lot of the time “their melancholy [will be] terrible” (92).  The person asking for help will get sad or maybe even mad if you reject what they ask for, but you cannot let that change your journey.

Life is not easy. Everyone has their own problems and hard times that they must push through on their journey. Oliver explains it as “the road full of fallen branches and stones” (92). Not one person in the world will go through their life without hardship. It is inevitable. The road represents life itself, and the fallen branches and stones symbolize life’s problems but branches and stones can be cleaned off of the road if one just puts in the effort to clean up the mess. Everyone has that mess, which are problems in life, but some procrastinate on solving those problems and some have it in them to clean their problems right away, which can take a lot of pressure off of one’s life.

No matter how tough the situation or problem is in one’s life, one can overcome any problem if he or she puts his or her mind to it. Oliver beautifully explains that in the next part of the poem by stating that, “little by little, as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own” (92). I think that this means that if one learns to block out other people’s opinions on things, then one can begin to find one’s own thoughts that were unclear to oneself before and then one can begin to live one’s own life with pure happiness. Again, the voices are the people who have an influence on your thoughts, the stars are one’s own thoughts and the sheets of clouds are one’s unclear thoughts because of the voices, and then one finally heard a new voice, the voice of oneself. 

The only way to save yourself from depression is to find yourself in the world. That new voice oneself finds is the greatest medicine one can achieve in life. Oliver’s last statement in the poem is, “as you strode deeper and deeper into the world, determined to do the only thing you could do—determined to save the only life you could save” (92). I think that Oliver is saying that this new voice that you found as your own is the main thing that will help you for the rest of your life. When you can begin to think for yourself without the influences of other people, this voice is the thing that can save you from yourself and any problem that can cause harm in your life. 

Mary Oliver’s, “The Journey” perfectly sums up life. It is difficult throughout one’s entire life. One will run into a multitude of problems and tasks that he or she must overcome. There will be moments of complete sadness and it seems like it will never go away, but one must find it in him or herself to overcome that sadness and conquer the problems one faces. It is the only way to breakthrough to a life of happiness. If one does not find that new voice, one’s conscious, it is impossible to be content with oneself because one will constantly be living off of the thoughts of society, or the individuals surrounding oneself in one’s life. The journey can only be complete finding oneself.