Mary Oliver repeats specific words, such as voices and nature, in her poem “The Journey,” in an effort to show how she perseveres and saves herself, despite her long and difficult journey. The speaker of this poem, despite using second person, is in fact the one going on the journey. This poem illustrates the length and difficulty of the journey she has to go on through not only the repetition of voices, but also through the repetitive structure and the motif of nature. 

The repetition of voices in the poem represents the people, possibly family or friends, that the speaker leaves behind on her journey to save herself. The speaker repeats the voices four times throughout the poem. The first three times, the voices have the same meaning. Each voice embodies someone that she leaves; a parent, because that is someone who would give advice; or maybe even a child, because a small child would grab at their parent’s ankles to get attention. The speaker leaves them behind because she feels like she needs to escape, “each voice cried. / But you didn’t stop.” (Oliver 11-12). The voices want the speaker to “mend [their] life” but instead, the speaker leaves them in order to save herself. While the first three voices all represent the same thing, the last voice is different, “there was a new voice / which you slowly / recognized as you own,” (Oliver 27-29). This illustrates that because the speaker was finally able to leave the other voices behind, she could now listen to her own voice and focus on herself instead of trying to help other people. The word slowly helps convey to the audience how hard this journey was for the speaker. The journey was not fast and easy; it took her a long time to find her own voice and not focus on other people’s. 

Through the constant, repeated structure of the poem, Mary Oliver asserts that her journey is long and difficult, but something she feels like she needs to do. The most constant structure of this poem is the short lines. No line is more than seven words, with the shortest being only two words long. This signifies a sort of rushed tone to the reader, like the speaker just wants the journey to be over. Additionally, the sentences are long, lasting anywhere from 5-14 lines with one exception. This repeated structure, with short lines but long sentences, demonstrates the repetitive nature of what she is doing. The speaker continually has to push past barriers in her journey to find herself. Despite the fact that most of the sentences are long, there is one that is short in order to draw attention to it, “But you didn’t stop” (Oliver 12). The sentence is important because it displays her single-mindnesses to complete her journey. 

The repetition of the word “but” in this poem also demonstrates the speaker’s perseverance in her journey to find herself. Every time that it is used, the speaker uses it as a way to say she pushes past all the things that are trying to stop her, especially the voices. In the first instance, even though the voices are crying and shouting, the “but” signals that she does not stop for them on her journey. Similarly, the second time “but” is used, she is leaving the voices behind to find her own. The “buts” in this poem also serve to symbolize each time she passes through a phase on her journey. The first one shows that she left her house with the voices in it and has gone onto the road to start her journey. The second one indicates she has totally left the voices behind, “But…as you left their voices behind” and is slowly finding herself (92).  The repetition of “but” in the poem allow the reader to clearly understand the hard steps she has taken on her journey. 

Mary Oliver employs the repeated motif of nature in the poem in order to symbolize her struggle to separate herself from the life that she knows into the life that she needs to save herself. First, Oliver uses the wind as a barrier that she has to get across, “though the wind pried / with its stiff fingers” (Oliver 14-15). The personification of the wind characterizes it as a strong force she has to overcome. The road serves the same purpose in the poem, “the road full of fallen / branches and stones” (Oliver 21-22) because it is a physical thing that she has to overcome. However, these physical obstacles represent the mental obstacles she has to overcome in her mind in order to complete her journey. They also represent the timeline of her journey: they start at the house with the wind shaking it, and then she exits the house onto the road, and then she walked into the world. The motif of nature expresses how hard the journey is for the speaker to go on. 

The speaker of this poem is on a journey to find herself. She knows that it will be a hard and long journey, but nevertheless goes on it because she feels it is the only way to save herself. The repetition of different elements in this poem allow the reader to connect with the speaker about how she is feeling, and understand the journey she has gone on. The voices represent everything/everyone she leaves behind. The repetitive nature of the structure indicates how, though her journey is difficult, she perseveres. The repetition of “but” also shows her persistence, but also shows the reader each stage of her journey. Finally, Oliver uses the repetition of nature as a symbolic representation of the journey. The repetition in this poem shows how she perseveres through all of the hardships she faces, whether it is the people around her or the obstacles in her mind, she pushes past all of them on her journey to save herself. 
