Mary Oliver is arguably one of the best American poets and one of the country’s best sellers. She was raised in a small town in Ohio where she got inspiration from nature. Most of her works are centered around tone especially tone relating to nature. She has won the National Book Award as well as the Pulitzer Prize. “The Journey” was a part of Mary Oliver’s book “Dream Work”, and this poem is one of her most popular. It is quite perplexing how Oliver can write in such a simplistic way, but at the same time her pieces contain immense meaning. By looking at “The Journey”, the reader can see how Oliver’s poems specifically The Journey are so fascinating through  use of sentence structure, second person point of view, and personification.

First off, The Journey was written with a choppy sentence structure, and this is part of Mary Oliver’s strategy to create an interesting poem. It makes the poem simple to read, but it can still possess a lot of meaning. The reader is able to stay engaged throughout the poem while absorbing all the messages that Oliver has laid out. The short sentence structure allows the author to pack a lot of meaning into a shorter read by choosing their word choice carefully. On the flip side, the reader has a continuous curiosity, and they are always wanting to read more. In her poem she uses “kept shouting” (Poetry), “at your ankles” (Poetry), and “was terrible” (Poetry). When looking at these several sentences, the reader can understand that the statements mainly act as support for the longer ones. A couple words like the ones above, give Oliver leeway to insert her nature references. She places the sentences before and after the long ones with great success. The reader is hooked from beginning to end. Oliver captivated her audience by using choppy sentences throughout the poem. 

Secondly, Mary Oliver writes her poem with second person point of view. Writing in second person is very effective because of the way it engages the reader. The reader is directly spoken to in the poem, so they feel an obligation to continue with the read. The opening sentence of the poem says “One day you finally knew” (Poetry). Not only does she use second person, but she opens with it. The reader is attached to the author from the moment the poem started. When combining second person with her insightful nature like personality, the reader becomes inspired in this poem. The poem gives them hope, and a sense of never giving up. The final lines of the paragraph states “as you strode deeper and deeper/ into the world,/ determined to do/ the only thing you could do/ determined to save/ the only life you could save” (Poetry). As the protagonist ventures, deeper into the world past all the temptations it did the only thing it could, and that was to search for its’ voice among the enticement. In the middle of the poem “you” or the subject went through many trials and persevered through them. Then the trials were followed by these closing lines. By making the reader the subject, Oliver was able to create an inspirational work about someone finding thyself amidst chaos. Oliver uses second person point of view to instantly grab the reader’s attention, and keep them interested through her aweing nature references.

Lastly, Mary Oliver incites her audience by using personification in The Journey. Growing up in Ohio gave Oliver a lot of her ideas when writing about nature. The Journey contains personification that is vivid and easily visualized. The first instance of personification says “You knew what you had to do,/ though the wind pried/ with its stiff fingers/ at the very foundations/ though their melancholy/ was terrible” (Poetry). When this line is read, the reader visualizes wind with fingers trying to cause some chaos. They then may become nervous or scoot to the edge of their seat. They may also feel themselves increasing in temperature, or even nipping at their fingers. Lines like this create turmoil, and they bring out excitement in the reader. The personification holds a lot of meaning, and it is also up for interpretation. Another exciting line from the poem goes like this “as you left their voices behind,/ the stars began to burn/ through the sheets of the clouds” (Poetry). The line above creates another level of excitement. In the previous line, the reader felt nervous for the protagonist, but in this line the reader can imagine a heavenly sight. Stars burning sounds prettier than any sunset ever. The sight of burning stars sounds majestic, and lines like these give off an aura of inspiration. Oliver motivates her audience by using personification.

After reading The Journey, the reader understands how it is so interesting, yet simple through her use of sentence structure, second person point of view, and personification. Oliver uses choppy sentences to keep her poem simple and reader friendly. Oliver also uses second person point of view to grab the attention of her audience, and making them want to read the poem in its entirety. Lastly, Oliver uses personification to incite her audience, and keep them thinking about what she means by her nature fused references. The three elements are the recipe Oliver uses to create elementary yet fascinating poems. It may sound like a mystery, but after dissecting this poem it is understandable.
