Tyler Wack

Professor Smith

English 101-029

18 September 2016

Analysis of The Journey

In her poem, The Journey, Mary Oliver’s main statement is about finding what you want to do in life or what goal you want to accomplish and going out and achieving it. The poem talks about the different parts you will experience in your journey. It is interesting that the title of the poem is The Journey and the poem actually goes through a figurative journey of life. Her main goal in this poem is to get the reader to follow the journey of the poem and compare it to the journeys that they go through in their own life. Oliver uses different types of figurative language such as personification to personify the voices and how they hold you back. She uses words and phrases to help produce imagery or mental pictures for the reader. She also uses adjectives to help better describe things, which helps give the reader a better picture in their mind of what is going on. In this paper, I will argue that Oliver states in order to successfully go through a journey to where you want to be, you must push past the voices that want to hold you back, keep going even if it is late in your journey, and your path only becomes clear to you once you push past the distractions and continue on your journey. 

In The Journey, Oliver talks about all of the voices and obstacles that will get in your way on your journey, but you have to try to block them out and push past them in order to get to where you want to be and accomplish your goal. Oliver states, “One day you finally knew/ what you had to do, and began, / though the voices around you/ kept shouting/ their bad advice” (lines 1-5). So, you finally figure out what you want to do and what goal you want to accomplish, which is the first step in your journey. However, all of these voices keep telling you that you are not good enough or you will not make it all the way through. This leads to the person having doubt in themselves whether they are good enough and makes them unsure if they should even continue to try. Oliver also says, “though the whole house/ began to tremble/ and you felt the old tug/ at your ankles” (lines 6-9). The whole house refers to the body of the person and the trembling, used as an adjective to describe the house, refers to the person being unsure of what to do or which path to take based on the obstacles and what people are saying. When she talks about the old tug at your ankles, she is using personification to give the voices the physical ability to hold you back by your ankles, although not really. Resistance has the force of being something physical without actually being physical. She uses the adjective old to say that it is something you have felt before and it is an ongoing cycle. You are continually being held back and cannot get past it. You have to break the cycle because you know what you have to do and you cannot stop. The poem states, “But you didn’t stop…though the wind pried/ with its stiff fingers/ at the very foundation” (Oliver lines 12-16). Even though the voices tried to get in your head and the obstacles got in your way, you did not let them stop you on your journey. Oliver uses personification again to give the wind the physical ability of having stiff fingers to mess up your foundation and tear you down. The word stiff is used to help describe the wind that is unrelenting and tough that works against you. Oliver talks about how “though their melancholy was terrible” (lines 17-18). She refers to the voices in a very dark and depressing way that shows that they are bad and should not be listened to. Oliver notes that even though all of these voices and obstacles will distract you and get in your way, you have to push past them to get to your end goal. 

Oliver also mentions that no matter what part of your journey you are at, keep going even if it is late. Oliver says, “It was already late/ enough, and a wild night, / and the road full of fallen/ branches and stones. It was late in your journey, which means you are almost out of time or getting to the end. A wild night refers to the type of journey you have had to go through between all of the voices and obstacles in your way. You must be persistent in your journey. Perseverance is important in completing your journey because it will help you find your path. Even though it is late and almost out of time, you can keep going in your journey if you are determined and want to accomplish your goal. The obstacles, like branches and stones, make it tough to continue on your journey.  However, you have to overcome them and keep going to the end. “Little by little”, you must continue deeper into your journey to get to the end (Oliver line 23). Do not let the time stop you from accomplishing your goal and getting where you want to be.

Finally, Oliver notes that your path to choose will only become clear to you once you push past the distractions and continue on your journey. There are so many different paths to choose from that you have to pick the one that will benefit you the most in the end. The voices will try to hold you back and take you down a different path. However, the poem states, “As you left the voices behind, / the stars began to burn/ through the sheets of cloud” (Oliver lines 24-26). You have to ignore the voices and push past them to just keep going deeper into your journey. You should steer clear of the paths that the voices say are best for you and just continue down the path you know is right for you. She refers to the stars burning through the clouds to illustrate that once you get past the voices, you will be able to see your end goal as it is unblocked by distractions and obstacles. She uses imagery in this sentence to help give the reader a mental picture of being able to see your end goal through distractions, like seeing stars through clouds. When picking a path to follow, make sure that it is the best one to get you to where you want to be.

In conclusion, the way to successfully go through your journey to where you want to be, you must push past the voices that want to hold you back, keep going even if it is late in your journey, and your path only becomes clear to you once you push past the distractions and continue on your journey. The poem’s main statement is about finding something you want to do and going and doing it. The poem itself goes through a figurative journey of life to help show you how you can go through your journey better. Also, the connection between the three points in this essay is that it goes through a journey in itself. The first step in the journey is to push past the voices, the second step is continuing on your journey no matter how late it is, and the third step, which is the result or goal, is your path becoming clear to you after you get past the distractions. Once the reader has read the poem, they can compare it to how they go through their own journeys. Oliver uses figurative language to help better describe and create a better picture for the reader while they are reading through the poem. In the end, you want to overcome all of the obstacles and follow the right path so that you can live the life you want to live.

Works Cited

Oliver, Mary. “The Journey.” The Carolina Reader for English 101, edited by Ben Harley and Nicole Fisk. Hayden-McNeil, LLC, 2016, pp. 92.