Mary Oliver is best known for writing of wisdom and generosity in her poems. She is also known for being a person who is close with nature and often seeks her inspiration from it. Her poems often filled with rich imagery of scenes describing the beauty of nature and just being around it. In “The Journey”, Oliver develops her theme of the poem by using key word usage, imagery, and the poems overall tone. The poem progresses as if going along with someone’s life and as they grow up from youth to adult. It details the challenges that each and every person has to beat while growing into their own image and how these challenges only built you up and make you stronger and evidentially stronger. The theme Oliver is trying the get is that every person has to overcome all the people and things telling you, you can’t and grow into your own self. To become your own self, you must stop listening to all the people holding you back and only listen to your own voice as only you are in control of your own destiny.

This poem begins with saying you finally realized what has to be done in order to accomplish your life. It references to these “voices” who seem to try and hold you back from your goals by trying to lead you in the wrong direction and tell you false guidance in your life. In the beginning of the poem, it mentions you in a house and how you can hear the shouting throughout it. As you get about halfway through the poem, it transitions to a setting outside where it sounds like there is a thunderstorm happening or has happening and its slowing down. This is the point where the struggle for independence is as its highest point. As the poem progresses, it is getting late and you start walking down a street that was hurt by the storm as you can see that the road is littered with fallen branches and stones. As this time the storm is leaving and the sun is starting to peak through the thick clouds. At this point in the poem, you have accomplished your goals of becoming solely independent and getting rid of the “voices” or people keeping you from becoming truly yourself. The last section of the poem is least important but it shows you going about your life as you grow older and how you finally realized after years that you and only you are the one who determines how your life feels out.

Oliver uses many different literary devices from imagery to personification to exhibit the theme through the poem. The examples of imagery in this poem mainly revolve around nature in my opinion. The main part this sticks outs to me is where it says “and the road full of fallen branches and stones” (“The Journey” 21,22). These two lines paint a vivid image in my head of a road just after a storm where branches and trees have fallen and are blocking the pathway. The first incident where personification scene is where the poem goes “and you felt the old tug at your ankles” (“The Journey” 8,9). In this part it is saying the many voices you hear around you are tugging or pulling at your ankles trying to hold you back from your goals and lead you in the wrong direction. The second occurrence that I notice of personification is “though the wind pried with its stiff fingers” (“The Journey” 14,15). In these two lines, Oliver is giving wind, a non-human entity, fingers that try to reach out and stop you from continuing your trip through life.  With these examples of personification and imagery, Oliver magnifies her point she is trying the get across throughout the whole poem as they help you paint a clearer story in your head as you read along.

Throughout the entire poem, you see this constant battle between you, the reader, and the “voices” or the people trying to lead you wrongly and down the path. The two main obstacles that block or try to block your way are the “voices” and the storm which turns the road into an obstacle course of fallen branches and stones which can correlate to everyday things that disrupt your goals. In the grand scheme of things, the way Oliver chooses to represent the struggles of every day is very smart because they can be quickly linked to things you experience in your everyday life. The poem goes through a scene of events from being in a house to a thunderstorm and finally after the storm where you see the sun start to peak through the clouds. The house is where you start to grow up, the storm is where you face these difficult life choices and challenges, and lastly the sun peeking through the clouds is where you have overcome these barriers and have registered that only you are in control of your life. The voices represent all the people and possibility media that try and tell you what you can and can’t do with your own life while the storm represents the many different barriers that interfere with your everyday life. 

Through Oliver’s use of imagery, personification, and word choice, her poem “The Journey” creates a surreal picture and theme in each reader’s mind that says that no matter what happens in your life, you are the only one controlling your life and destiny. You are what you make of it and no other person has any say so on how your own life folds out to be. With your battle with other people trying to you back and the many life obstacles you’ll face, you will soon realize that your own voice is the only one you should be listening too. The setting of this journey starts out in a house and ends up in a road after a thunderstorm. The setting is developed through Oliver’s vivid use of imagery to help you better understand the struggles that are being ensued. This poem is a prime example of Mary Oliver’s work as it includes nature where she often sought her inspiration from and it also includes a person who with wisdom of life is able to overcome these dark forces trying to hold them back and stir them from there pathway.
