The Journey

Mary OliverFiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1963

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“The Journey” is a free verse poem. It contains 36 lines of various lengths, from three syllables, such as in Line 4 and Line 10, to eight syllables, such as in Line 24 and Line 31. This means that the poem employs a variety of meters. Keeping the line lengths under 10 syllables creates more white space than longer lines, such as the classic English pentameter. The short lines stretch halfway across the page, at their widest point, making a thin column. In a standard-sized book, the number of lines in this column causes the poem to extend onto a second page. In digital format online, as this poem is often posted, the length of a poem equates to how many times the reader has to scroll (“The Journey” fits into one scroll on a small laptop screen).

Oliver doesn’t include stanza breaks, but the poem can be broken up by end punctuation. However, like the lines, the sentences vary in length. The first sentence is nine lines long, the second sentence is two lines long (including a quote), and the third sentence is one line long. The final sentence of the poem is 14 lines long. The journey of a single sentence extends further at the end of the poem, emphasizing how the speaker is traveling further away from home.

Enjambment

The short lines “The Journey” create many opportunities for enjambment, which is breaking up a single sentence over multiple lines. Oliver only includes one end-stop (a sentence that begins and ends in a single line) in the poem: “But you didn’t stop” (Line 12). The diction of stop links to how the reader stops at the period following “stop,” before continuing on with the following line and new sentence. The longest sentences in the poem, the first and last sentences, contain multiple phrases connected with em dashes; these punctuation marks are placed at the ends of Line 5 and Line 34. These em dashes combined with line breaks are Oliver’s best use of enjambment in the poem; the punctuation (or lack thereof) represents a continuation, rather than an end stop, like a period.

The diction at the break between Lines 28 and Line 29 also highlights enjambment. Oliver writes “and there was a new voice / which you slowly / recognized as your own” (Lines 27-29). The line break on the word “slowly” (Line 28) forces the reader to slow down when the word appears. Form and content are aligned here. Oliver uses both to emphasize that the journey toward inner wisdom is not a fast race with many people, but an unhurried, solitary quest.

Repetition

Oliver also uses repetition throughout “The Journey.” She repeats phrases, such as “knew what you had to do” (Lines 2-3, 13) to develop the theme of Following Internal Knowledge. The idea of someone knowing their purpose is important because it is at the crux of the journey. It is what gives direction. Oliver also repeats key words, such as “began” (Lines 2, 7, 25). In Line 2 and Line 25, the repeated word emphasizes the start of the journey, and the start of understanding the quest. In Line 7, “began” refers to the violent voices. They have begun to tear apart the home, and this is deeply connected with why someone must begin the journey to self-discovery. A person needs to commune with nature and listen to their inner voice.

Some repetition of words also occurs within lines. Oliver writes that “little by little” (Line 23) the past can be left behind. The repetition of the word little illustrates how the journey may be repetitive, but it will progress incrementally, piece by piece. Another example of repeating the same word in one line is how the inner voice “kept you company / as you strode deeper and deeper / into the world” (Lines 30-32, emphasis added). This echoes the incremental progress earlier in the poem, and builds upon that idea. The journey to self-knowledge is not only slow, but also far-reaching.