Mary Oliver's "The Journey" first appeared in her 1963 collection No Voyage and Other Poems. The poem is about the importance of taking charge of one's own life and leaving behind negative influences. Despite being one of Oliver's more personal poems, and including references to real events in Oliver's life, many readers will identity with its themes of self-reliance and integrity. This has helped to secure its place as one of the most popular poems from one of America's most popular poets.
Explanation:
“The Journey” Summary
Addressing the reader directly, the speaker says that one day you finally understood what it was that you needed to do, and so you set about doing it—even as the people in your life kept yelling unhelpful suggestions at you. You kept going even as your whole world became unsteady—something the speaker metaphorically compares to a house starting to shake—and even as you felt a familiar pull trying to hold you back. The people around you demanded that you fix their lives, but you kept going. You understood what you needed to do now, even as outside forces tried to tear you down—something the speaker compares to the wind desperately prying at the foundations of that metaphorical house—and even though it was really hard for you to see how deeply sad the people asking for your help were. The speaker goes on to compare doing what you had to do to leaving in the middle of a fierce, untamed night, and walking down a road filled with bits of debris in your way. Yet, one step at a time, as you got further and further away from the sound of all those people's voices, the stars started to shine through the cloud cover, and a new voice appeared. You began to understand that you were in fact hearing your own voice, and this kept you from being lonely as you walked with great purpose further into the world, resolved to do the only thing you were actually capable of doing—to take charge of the only life that was actually yours to live.
