Mary Oliver utilizes repetition throughout her poem “The Journey” as an extremely effective way of helping the reader decipher the deeper meaning of the poem each time she uses this literary device. The word voice is used several times throughout “The Journey” and has a unique purpose each time it’s used. Oliver was very careful in picking the title, since the whole poem is about how a certain voice helps us through life, which proves to be a journey with many obstacles.

Oliver uses the word voice throughout “The Journey” in many different situations to show an individual’s journey through life. The first instance when voice is used is in the third line of the poem when Oliver says “One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice- though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles.” (Oliver 92) The word voice is used here to describe the voices of society and the many people involved in our lives. Voice is used in a negative connotation here. These voices do nothing but shout bad advice and attempt to steer the reader on the wrong path in life. When Oliver says “the voices around you kept shouting bad advice” (92) she is giving an example of how there will always be people who criticize the reader and attempt to make the reader feel uncomfortable with their self. In this same line of the poem Oliver says “the voices around you” (92). These are not only individuals but also could represent society as a whole. Individuals will attempt to make the reader feel like if you are not just like everyone else in society, the reader is odd or not like everyone else. 

In the beginning of the quote Oliver mentions “one day you finally knew what you had to do” (92). In this context she means a person finally made up their mind that in order to continue on their journey of life they are going to ignore these voices and the bullies of society and be their own person, staying true to who they are, and listen to their voice, their conscious. When Oliver talks about the “house beginning to tremble” (92), she means how people can get worrisome and scared when things begin to go wrong in society and when people give them issues. If the reader’s house starts trembling, they would naturally become scared because of the easy feeling of becoming lost in the house and the house shaking, which she is implying a person would be in this situation. Then Oliver says “and you felt the tug at your ankles” (92). In a time of fear, people will begin to take you down or drag you down into the same coward, frightened state as them. In times like these, Mary Oliver says “But you didn’t stop” (92). She is explaining that people should trust their self and listen to their conscious, not other people’s disturbances. The voice that stays with the reader, their conscious, will lead them the right way and help them succeed. 

The next time Oliver uses the word voice she says “ “Mend my life!” each voice cried. But you didn’t stop.” (92) Here, the word voice is used to negatively again but it’s a different kind of use. Voice describes the constant calls out of people who need help throughout the reader’s life. These voices are distractions, asking the reader to help repair their lives. In the next couple lines Mary Oliver mentions how “the road is full of fallen branches and stones in the road” (92). This means that there will be several obstacles as the reader continues on their journey through life. These branches and stones symbolize the many difficulties and hardships people will run into on their journey. Mary Oliver was very delicate with her word choice here. Branches and stones are negative words that are used as hindrances in this context. The sensory images of stones and branches provoke and sense of fear and loneliness combined with the constant voices calling out for help are all symbols of the various hindrances the reader will encounter on their road through life. 

When Oliver says “But you didn’t stop” (92) she is showing that the reader continued on their path in life and blocked out other’s desperate calls. In society, there will always be people asking for assistance or care, but during the journey of life there is always something that tells the reader to push on, despite their calls for help. The reader’s conscious helped block out these calls, and told the reader to continue on. By now the reader should be able to tell that the journey throughout life is anything but easy, but if they listen to their heart, they will have a guide to take them through the tough times. 

Up until this point in the poem, voice has been used with a negative connotation of people trying to drag the reader down or hinder them so far in the poem. Oliver does this to give the readers the feeling of heaviness and being helpless in times of trouble and that they’re all alone. In the third and final use of the word voice, Oliver transforms the word into a positive meaning. 

 The next time the word voice is used by Mary Oliver she says, “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, that kept 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” (92). The first time voice is used, Oliver is explaining that as the reader progresses through life, they leave the voices of distraction and criticism behind them. The poem has a change in tone when Oliver says “the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voice that we slowly recognize as our own” (92). The tone is a sudden epiphany that can be described as surge of knowledge overcoming previous hesitation in life. The choice of words by Oliver almost makes it seem heaven like in the way a person’s vison of life and their conscious becomes so much clearer.  This excellent use of imagery by Oliver is showing that a realization is beginning to overcome the clouds that already existed there, and that these are the unsure thoughts the reader once had that worried and instilled fear in them. The clouds are the thought that people should be like everyone else in society, and the reader is weird if they don’t follow everyone else. The burning light is the reader’s conscious, the voice that has helped them through the many hardships they already faced in life, and the same voice that is ready to lead them through the rest of their journey through life. The reader goes through a realization that the voice that has been with them all along has aided them and provided them with comfort through all the difficult times so far. This voice, their conscious, has always pushed the audience to keep moving in life and served as their guide. The quote also mentions that their conscious has been “determined to save the only life you could save” (92). This means that the audience’s conscious has always been aware that if they focus is on saving other people’s lives too much, they could soon forget about their own and start to get off path on their own journey through life. This is why in the beginning of the poem, when Oliver said “but you didn’t stop” (92) she was acknowledging that the reader’s conscious is the only voice that can keep them strong enough to block out other people’s calls of desperation, and to keep moving towards success in life. The voice in the audience’s hearts saved them throughout the poem’s journey of life, and set them up on a strong minded, prosperous path for the rest of their life.

Mary Oliver uses the word voice in several different ways throughout the poem “The Journey”. The first two times voice is used it is a negative form that describes how people can shout bad advice and criticism at us as well as when people delay our journey in life by asking for us to stop and help repair themselves and their lives. In the last line of the poem, Oliver uses voice twice, once negative and then finally positive for the first time. The reason she uses it negative first is to show that the reader must leave behind those voices of distraction and sadness. When voice is used positively, it symbolizes that a voice is breaking through a series of clouds, which are the nervous thoughts the audience had about breaking away from the normal in society. This voice is the reader’s conscious and it has been with them throughout their journey through life, and will lead them through the rest of it. This voice was our rock through the hardships and troubles we endured throughout life. Mary Oliver used numerous literary devices throughout “The Journey” to show how voices affect us in the audience’s lives, and emphasizes towards the end of the poem that the most important voice in their lives is their conscious, which is the reader’s crucial guide throughout life.  