Much of Mary Oliver's writing is short and to the point. On any given line she rarely exceeds six syllables. Therefore, she is sure to make every word count and full of importance.

She looks at all points of life with extreme detail. I found this to be exceptionally true in her poem, “The Journey”. The poem is about the journey someone takes through life to find who they truly are as an individual. Each line is a piece of wisdom that helps you along the path to becoming your true self. As the poem progresses, the wisdom, the simplistic nature of the author's style, and the ability to trust your conscious all become more prevalent themes. All of these themes are created by the style of the author's language. The unique simplicity of the author's writing makes it much easier to take the wisdom from her words and apply them to our own life.

Wisdom in the poem serves to create a path through the countless obstacles in our life. Throughout our life we will encounter bad advice and things we are told or forced to do even though in the back of our mind we know we shouldn't, this poem is a guide to trusting yourself and staying true to who you are. The poem starts off with this dilemma, “One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice” (ln 1-5). I believe she starts the poem off with this dilemma is to set the stage at the most important part of the process of becoming yourself, overcoming doubt. You must trust what you believe and not what people tell you what to believe. The paragraph concludes with, “ ‘Mend my life!’, each voice cried. But you didn't stop” (ln 10-12). This is where the author begins to become themself. They hear what people are saying and they hear the bad advice being shouted at them, but they trust themself enough to keep going on with their life and not give in to the people around them. I believe this is the end of the first paragraph because it is the end of the first chapter in becoming who you are. The authors wisdom continues on to paragraph three where we see the journey begin to come full circle. In the final chapter of their journey we see them truly becoming themself, “But little by little, as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voice, which you slowly recognized as your own” (ln 22-28). This is important because after all of the trust put in yourself and the authors wise words, we see their true voice emerge and they now become themselves. The authors wisdom is so useful because it is so simple yet clear. It derives from a very complex situation yet the author is able to simplify what is important for to get through this journey. 

The simplistic nature of the author's style helps us find the importance in her words. As she says, the voices of society do nothing but “shout their bad advice”, we need to stay above that and believe in ourselves because we live in a world where in order to be considered “normal” we must conform to society. The simplicity of the author's words are found in the last paragraph too, when she leaves us with the difficult task of finding our true voice, in a world where society controls how people think, speak, and act. The beauty of the simplicity is that there is so much meaning behind her words even though she uses so few. Each word holds an important symbol that contributes to the overall message of her words. There are many lines in the poem that are only two or three words long and hold the importance of an entire poem. She uses her wisdom to create the simplicity in her words. One of the most important lines in the whole poem is only four letter long, “but you didn't listen” (ln 12). This is when the reader has overcome society and its bad advice to find their own true voice. They finally trust their conscious and are able to carry out their life as themself.

The ability to trust your conscious is a very important yet difficult task, especially when society is persuading you not to. Society is always conveying the message, trust what you see and believe what you hear, and unfortunately too many people conform to this message and never truly find themselves. The author is very against what society has to say. Society portrays the fact that they know you better than you know yourself. Its an unfortunate thought, but it is true. The author leaves us with an important message about society. As we learn to step away from a world where society controls our every move, it is only then that we are able to make the leap into the new world. The world led by our own voice. It is only then when we can truly be ourselves. The last ten lines of the poem are where the reader truly becomes who they are, “there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own, that kept you company 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” (ln 27-37).  It is at this point that we recognize our own voice, a voice that has actually kept us company and guided us throughout our journey. This is our conscious, the voice of our hearts. This was the voice that saved us.

The wisdom, the simplistic nature of the author's style, and the ability to trust your conscious are very wise themes in the process of finding who you are. The author does a great job of deciding what process to follow in becoming who you are. Her wisdom can be seen by any person of any page and her message can be applied by anyone as well. Her simple yet deep words are so impressive to read and digest because of the weight they carry. Each word means something truly important to the overall message of the poem. She can make anyone trust themselves by speaking true facts that anyone can agree with. Her words are so powerful some people could read this poem and become the person they always knew they could be. 