There are numerous ways in which imagery might be used to express emotion, set the mood, or even to symbolize an unwritten meaning or conclusion within a work of writing. Throughout Mary Oliver’s “The Journey,” the reader is exposed to a number of different uses of imagery as it is deployed by the author to fulfill different purposes within the poem. The piece uses imagery to describe scenes, create different moods and tones, and invoke the symbolic nature of the settings she has created in order to argue that self-influence and individuality are the crucial elements behind each person’s journey to discover themselves.

The first instance of imagery in “The Journey” can be found on lines 6 and 7. The author uses these earlier lines in the poem to set what could be described as a more stressful or foreboding tone to the work. The author uses imagery in these lines to help create a more stressful and perhaps even frightful visual to the reader, as she describes how the voices shout and how “The whole house began to tremble” (Oliver 6-7). This instance of imagery in the poem is used in order to set the mood/tone in the early lines of the poem. This darkened mood in the beginning of the work seems to lend meaning to the purpose behind the journey, as though the main character is working to achieve something more, and to escape from the life that he or she once had. Though this application of the figurative device is executed in a more direct, simplistic manner than the other examples in this essay, this instance of imagery proves to play an important role nonetheless. The author is able to develop a dark and somewhat frightening tone in the opening lines of this work in thanks to the use of imagery, which allows the poem to really develop its message of self-influence and individuality by giving the main character motivation to escape his or her current circumstances which would incite the journey in the first place. 

The next example of imagery in the poem can be seen on lines 21 and 22 when Oliver is describing the “wild night” faced by the main character. In this part of the poem the author uses what might seem at surface level as imagery used to portray a scene encountered by the main character, but once the text is further dissected it becomes more obvious that the author has conjured this mental image in an effort to symbolize the struggles and hardships faced by the main character along his or her journey. The “road full of fallen branches and stones,” (Oliver 21-22) mentioned here is symbolic of the difficulties faced by the main character as he or she continues upon the journey--or road in this instance. This lends a greater understanding about how the choice to break away from society and pursue one’s own path is seldom an easy choice or an easy journey, which the author shows by symbolizing difficulties and hardships with rocks and stones, which are common obstacles found on a path used by few people. The author is able to expertly illustrate the struggles faced by the main character thanks to the use of imagery, which has in turn allowed the poem to adopt a far greater meaning about the difficulties of choosing to break away from society and make choices for oneself, despite the apparent difficulties faced by those who choose the scarcely-traveled path of individuality. 

The third and final use of imagery in “The Journey” can be found in lines 25 and 26 of the poem. By this point in the work, the main character has just passed what would seem like the height of their struggles as he or she leaves behind the “fallen branches and stones” (Oliver 21-22) that have troubled the main character’s journey. Oliver uses this as an opportunity to instill hope in the reader, as she delivers a somewhat calming, and serene scene that describes how the stars are able to shine through the apparently dense cloud cover that had previously proven too opaque to see them. In the poem, “the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds,” (Oliver 25-26) conjures an obvious image of how the luminous stars are able to shine through the darkness of the cloud cover that shrouds the main character’s world in darkness or shade. The reader is ultimately left with the classic message of how the good overcomes the bad, as the light from the stars is symbolic of the main character’s perseverance and how it was eventually able to overcome the difficulties and hardships faced along the journey. This is perhaps the most important application of imagery from the poem because it provides the work with its moral, that being how hard work and perseverance will always help to overcome life’s obstacles. This example of imagery in the text is a good deal more complex than the others examined within this essay, but it is used to equally potent effect when the author uses it to accomplish a purpose within the poem. In this instance, the author is able to use imagery to help to deliver the moral within the story, which is arguably the largest part of the poem’s meaning. 

Mary Oliver’s “The Journey” is ripe with examples of how imagery can be used in numerous ways to illustrate far more than just images to the reader in an effort to instill greater appreciation and understanding of individualism. Within the lines of the “The Journey” imagery was used to describe a scene which helped to set the mood for the early lines of the work, this gave a source of motivation for the character in the poem. It was later used to describe two highly symbolic scenes that held images and messages that were crucial to the reader’s understanding of the author’s message, both of which were used to emphasize the importance of self-influence to the character as he or she carried on throughout their journey. In conclusion, this poem demonstrates how important the values of self-influence and individuality are beyond the journey described in this work, as they are key elements in the journey made by each person as they seek to discover who they are.
