Mary Oliver was born on September 10, 1935 in Cleveland, Ohio. Many of her works have to do with Ohio in some way or another. A lot of her works are about her walks home from school. She has been compared to Emily Dickinson and is arguably the best-selling poet in the United States. She has won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. She wrote The Journey in a collection of poems entitled Dream Work that was published in 1986. The Journey has transparent patterns, literary devices, and themes that are clear throughout the poem.

First, the pattern of the poem consists of choppy and short lines. I did not notice a rhyme scheme but every now and then a few words rhyme. I feel that the point of the short lines in the poem are to make the reader think about every line and consider what could be said next. Some lines could be taken out of context without reading the next line immediately after. There is a quote in the first part that breaks up the poem. The quote brings a conversational aspect to the poem, although it is just someone crying for help. If this poem was written as a paragraph, it would lose a lot of appeal. The grab that this poem has is through the setup and pattern that it presents. The poem opens with vague first few lines. As the reader continues, the message becomes more and more apparent. The context is also very important; the first sentence is about the bad things in life. The second, third, and fourth sentences are about voices crying for help to try and stop you, but you keep moving on. The last two sentences contain a lot of information. The last two lines portray that it was a late night and you finally stopped hearing those voices trying to draw you back once you hear your own voice and become determined to save your own life because it is the only one worth saving.

Next, there are many literary devices throughout the poem. A few of the literary devices are imagery, personification, and repetition. The imagery that the reader should notice are the word choices that Oliver uses. She chooses very strongly emotional words to describe everyday words. Oliver could use boring words and words that the reader would usually see, but she chooses not to. She gives words human characteristics. An example of that would be “stars burning” or voices crying. This brings a human feel and understanding toward these words. I noticed that when she mentioned your “whole house”, it actually meant the reader’s foundation as a person, not his or her literal house. The next literary device that the reader should notice is the personification that Oliver uses. The main one that I noticed was that the “wind pried” with its stiff fingers. I believe Oliver is trying to show how nature can affect the reader and lead the reader to fear. Every reader knows that wind cannot pry and does not have fingers, but she again gives words human traits which can cause fear. The last literary device that the reader should notice is the repetition Oliver uses. Repetition is used to show emphasis. Oliver says three times that the reader knew what he or she has to do. She does not say it the same way all three times. This shows that, in life, something either good or bad will happen and you will know what to do immediately after. 

Finally, Oliver illustrates many themes throughout the poem. Theme means what the poem or work is about. I thought that the general theme of the poem is that you have control over your own life. Some other themes I noticed were that this is about the journey to becoming your own person and that the only life that you can surely save is your own in this cruel world. What I saw in the poem that made me believe that the theme was that is how the poem tells a story. The main point is that even when bad people and society are trying to drag you down and when poor people cry for help, you must continue on and look out for yourself because that is the only life you can completely protect and are responsible for. This poem is not about being selfish though. It is about how to achieve safety with yourself despite all of the bad possibilities that could happen. In life, sometimes you have to ignore the cries for help and the evil voices and keep going. You must overcome diversity throughout your life and learn when to help others and when to run to protect yourself.

The Journey has transparent patterns, literary devices, and themes that are clear throughout the poem. Oliver uses very simple words in an easily understood context. The main point of this poem is to stay true to yourself. No one in the world owes anything to you. This should teach us that no one has to do anything for us, we are in this world by ourselves. The poem is not saying to be selfish, it is explaining that people and things will try to drag you down and you need to persevere through it all and stay true to yourself. If we do all of the things that Oliver says to, then we will keep moving on and become our own person.