Figurative Language In The Journey By Mary Oliver

In “The Journey” by Mary Oliver, she uses the repetition of the phrase “you finally knew what you had to do” (92:1-2). She uses the phrase throughout three parts of the poem. Each phrase goes with the beginning, middle, and end. In the beginning of the poem, the phrase is used to convey the feeling that the individual is having this awakening in his or her life of what they finally need to go out and do. Oliver uses the words “one day” that tell us that the individual is getting this feeling to go on the journey all of a sudden (92:1). This leads the individual to begin out on this journey of their life. They have to break away from the shouting voices and the tugging at their ankles that have been holding them back from finding themselves. I believe that Oliver used this phrase as a way to guide us through the poem. She is keeping the point known of “you knew what you had to do” but repeating in different places throughout the poem (92:13).

Between the first time she used it and the second time in the middle of the poem, Oliver is now going on to talking about going on through this journey how “the wind pried/ with its stiff fingers” is the individual walking through this hard wind trying to make a way through (92:14-15). The journey has not been an easy one but the individual will have to push their way through it. We now are seeing the weight of the voices and things that may have been holding the individual back being lifted off of their shoulders as Oliver states, “little by little,/as you left their voices behind” (92:23-14). Oliver wants us to see that the individual is making process on this journey that they have set forth on. The things that may have been clouding their path before are starting to clear up. The individual is starting to see the light at the end of the