When it comes to writing, each individual author has their own way of getting their point across in their work. Many of them use the same ways, just with their own little twist added to it. In the year 1935 in the small town of Maple Heights, Ohio, Mary Oliver was born. Only a few short years later, Oliver won the Pulitzer Prize for one of her works. One of her more famous works “The Journey,” was written in the year 1986 first appearing in her book Dream Works. In this piece, Oliver uses both positive and negative connotation of words to show how someone was in a bad situation, but got themselves out of it in order to argue the only life someone can truly save is their own.  

When I first read “The Journey,” there were a few words and phrases that I noticed first. The first of these phrases was “You knew what you had to do” (Oliver 92). This phrase struck me as a bit odd, because it was in the past tense. This was something new to me because I had never read a poem in which the author starts out with it being in the past. As I dug deeper into the poem, it began to make sense. The reason this was in the past tense was because it had already happened, and it was the author reflecting on what had happened. The author “knew” what had to be done, thus showing that the person in the poem had already been through this experience. The poem went on to talk about how people “kept shouting their bad advice” (Oliver 92) as well as the person in the poem “felt the old tug” (Oliver 92). This showed me that these people were being hateful to the person in the poem. These words stuck out like a sore thump because of their connotation. These words have a very negative connotation to them, making the poem feel dark and dreadful. Use of such words made the beginning of the poem feel sad to me.

As the poem continued, so did the negative connotations and the list of words I noticed first only seem to get longer. Words such as “cried” and “wind pried with its stiff fingers,” only helped to heighten the meaning of what Oliver was trying to say. When I read the quote “wind pried with its stiff fingers” (Oliver 92), I paused and had to reread this part. This was one of the major parts of the poem that stuck out to me. The reason Oliver uses this quote is to explain just how bad of a situation the person within the poem was in. With the “wind pried” shows how the person in the poem is continuing to be beaten down by others who try to bring them down. The other word I found very interesting was “melancholy.” When I saw this word I had no idea what its meaning was, so I asked my mother. She told me that melancholy is a feeling of sadness with no real cause. After hearing this, I fully understood why Oliver used this word. She could have used others such as “sadness” or “unhappiness,” but it would not have flowed as well in the poem and made the reader think more deeply about what was going on within the poem. The use of this word allows the reader to pause and think about how the other people within the poem are sad and how they are trying to bring the other person down. They do this because they don’t want to see others happy. They want the person in the poem to be on the same level as them and to be unhappy and miserable. 

With the end of the poem approaching, there was a shift from negative to positive connotation. The words in this part of the poem that I noticed first were “there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own” (Oliver 92), as well as “kept you company” (Oliver 92).  I noticed these phrases mainly in part because it was adding new meaning to the poem. At this point the poem was no longer sad, but more of a poem in which the reader could see the light at the end of the tunnel. At this part in the poem, the true meaning of it is recognized. This was mainly about a reflection how someone was able to get through a rough time in their life. Their life was filled with people which tried to bring them down through their own misery. In their life, they had to burn bridges and leave these people behind. This is because they finally realized that they could only save their own life, change their own ways and not help people who did not want to be helped. 

“The Journey,” is a poem in which someone has had a bad time in their life, but was able overcome it. They overcame it by finding the voice within themselves, allowing them to focus on their life and not that of others who did not want to be helped. The reason I got this meaning out of Oliver’s poem was because of the words that stuck out to me the most. With the use of the word “knew,” this allowed me to think of a deeper meaning of the text because I knew the person in the poem had already gone through this experience. The negative connotation at the beginning showed me hardships that were faced and the positive connotation showing me how these problems were overcome. This allowed for the person to get themselves out of the bad situation and to go on to “save the only life you could” (Oliver 92), which was their own. 
