Finding an inner voice can come with distractions and many times experiencing and learning from deluded failures. And through that, one can go back and forth with an internal and external battle. The poem “The Journey” itself depicts the message of determination to succeed in finding that voice.  In Mary Oliver’s “The Journey,” imagery is used metaphorically to develop and illustrate the experiences of finding one’s own voice. 

“Though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice…. though the whole house began to tremble” (lines 3-7).  The trembling of the house solidifies that all the voices that were heard, were overwhelming.  The individuals that were giving their advice, in this case bad advice, began to be overwhelming and can make one want to leave it all behind and move on into a calmer headspace.  This use of imagery signifies the beginning of what it takes to find a voice.  

“And you felt the old tug, at your ankles, “Mend my life!” each voice cried” (lines 8-11).  In this instance, the voices were crying out for guidance on mending their own lives.  The old tug represents the things that can prevent forward progression.  Things that can prevent forward progression are, morals that one had been taught in one’s pre-adult life.  Trying to turn against these morals can be difficult, because you don’t want to leave those principles behind. Which those principles have been engraved into the person that is of becoming. The old tug, can imply the weight of chains that are felt when trying to move on.  The chains can symbolize the bondage succumbing to those voices, which makes it harder to defy the voices heard.  This symbolization used by Oliver, helps the reader to visualize how hard it can be to progress and to show the internal struggle of one in the poem. 

“And the road full of fallen branches and stones” (lines 21-22).  The use of imagery in this line, illustrates how it can be hard to embark on this journey without acknowledging the failures that can be experienced.  Going through the journey to find a voice, and running into a road full of fallen branches and stones.  The fallen branches and stones symbolize the failed attempts of many people who may have tried their own voice.  But unfortunately, they ran into obstacles and were reared off their journey by distractions.  Oliver makes it clear to the reader that it can be very difficult to transition.  Because to do so, one must be willing to find an inner voice.  It’s pretty much all or nothing.  And with the usage of the fallen branches and stones, the reader is really able to see that failure is always a possibility in stepping out of their comfort zone.  

“The stars began to burn…. through the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voice” (lines 25-27).  The use of imagery in this line develops an image for the reader, to better understand how it feels coming to the moment where an inner voice is found.  The stars began to burn, is used to intensify that a voice became clearer.  Instead of using the ‘the stars began to shine,’ the word burn has more significance.  The word burn, is very significant because it illustrates how one would finally feel because they have fulfilled what Oliver says, as what they knew they had to do.

  The sheets of clouds symbolizes how ones headspace can be very clouded.  Usually when you think of clouds, you think of clouds being light and fluffy.  By describing the clouds as sheets, Oliver takes the clouds from hazy to completely oppressive and heavy.  Thereby adding to the sense that at the beginning of the journey, the other voices weren’t mixed in with her own voice, and that they had completely blocked her voice.  Oliver intensifies the stars and clouds, to show the reader that once transitioning through the journey, there is the light at the end of this dark tunnel.  The tunnel, seemed everlasting end and that ultimately one would become stuck.  And as one went deeper and deeper into the journey, the prize became unclear. It would be unknown if ever there would be a voice found at the end of the tunnel. The prize being that individually, having found an inner voice as a result of going through the journey.  

In Mary Oliver’s, “The Journey,” imagery is used to develop and illustrate the experience of finding one’s own voice.  Oliver uses metaphorical phrases to help the reader visualize what’s really occurring in the poem.  And by utilizing those phrases, the reader can relate to the journey.  Due to the fact that every individual goes through some type of journey to find who they are as a person.  Oliver hints throughout the poem, that determination is a key factor that plays into fulfilling this journey.  By replicating the phrase, ‘for you knew what you had to do,’ this is how Oliver implies that determination is necessary, because one can easily get tied up with distractions and obstacles that can apprehend the becoming of one’s own person.  That replication of that phrase also gives the reader the sense that the journey continues on beyond the poem.  Oliver illustrates that just like when we’re trying to make a tough decision, we go back and forth about what decision is best to make. But the decision we make, has to be the best decision for ourselves.   In “The Journey,” one is trying to decide whether to listen to the external voices or go with his or her own voice.  
