We all face adversity, it is an essential part of life that we do not welcome with open arms, but we appreciate once it is in the past.  Mary Oliver’s poem, The Journey describes this confrontation with adversity and the uniquely personal “journey” we all embark on when we meet it.  The way in which Oliver wrote this poem allows for each reader to have an individual and subjective experience with it.  Life is an ongoing journey in which everyone has an individual experience and this poem reflects that.  Her use of everyday, common dialect, relatable and general comparisons and figurative language, allows this poem to be understood and interpreted in many ways, by many readers. 

Whether it was intended or not, the poem is written in an ongoing and continuous structure, lacking stanzas.  This lack of stanzas could be a comparison to the absence of breaks we are given in the times we are met with adversity in life.  Perseverance is a key attribute and Oliver refers directly to it in lines 12 and 13 when she says, “But you didn’t stop./ You knew what you had to do,” (1).  Without the characteristic of perseverance, you would not make it through the journey. There is one internal rhyme that kicks off the poem, “One day you finally knew/What you had to do, and began.” (Oliver 1, lines 1-2).  Personally, this one rhyme symbolizes the beginning of your personal journey and the fact that there is only one, gives it this significant distinction. 

The poem itself is one long and extended free verse metaphor.  To convey her message of going through life and realizing what you have to do to thrive and find yourself, Oliver uses the description of a physical journey, to describe an internal change and spiritual revolution that takes place in life when you realize your vision of who and what you want to be.  To achieve this, she compares the journey of becoming a new person to a journey through the woods, and describes what challenges you will encounter along that journey.

Oliver’s use of short, choppy, fragment-like lines highlights her impeccable word choices and adds to the sensory images we are able to see when we read this poem.  The key to making people relate is making them feel, and by using sensory images she does just that.  Lines 3 through 9 are loaded full of descriptions that get you to feel what she is describing, “Though the voices around you Kept shouting/ Their bad advice‚/Though the whole house/Began to tremble/And you felt the old tug/At your ankles” (Oliver 1).  In these 6 lines she uses noise (sense of hearing), and touch to get you to relate and imagine these people surrounding you, grabbing and shaking your ankles, yelling at you, and trying to drag you back with them.  Her word choices make you anxious and feel as if you need to escape these toxic people in order to save yourself.  Oliver also uses sensory images to describe the obstacles that challenge us when trying to reach the end of our journey.  When she says, “And the road full of fallen/ Branches and stones” she is referring to the obstacles we face when confronted with adversity (Oliver 1, lines 21-22).  Without the use of these literary devices Oliver’s poem would not have the same effect. These literary devices make relating to the message and imagining yourself in the situation easier.

Midway through the poem Oliver uses the literary device personification.  In lines 14 and 15 she says, “Though the wind pried/With its stiff fingers” (Oliver 1).  By using personification, she adds a layer to her writing and communicates her message more effectively by relating wind to human movements and as a result creating a connection with the reader. 

Another key literary device that Oliver uses in the poem is repetition.  In the 36 lines of this poem the word “you” is used 13 times.  The constant repetition makes the poem feel as if it is a private conversation between each individual.  This in combination with the confident, determined, and inspirational tone of the poem makes it is clear that her intention was to emphasize that you are the only person who you can save. 

Throughout the poem Oliver makes you feel that the journey is going to be chalked full of challenges, but the most challenging journey of all may be to acknowledge that you need to embark on your journey and follow and listen to your inner voice, especially when there is a storm of other voices telling you otherwise. When you arrive on the other side is when the satisfaction of overcoming adversity sets in.  You realize all the struggles you faced were worth it because you came out a stronger and better person, but you are the only one who can do it.  So, the real question is, what will you do, stick with the pack or go find yourself?

 