Zebrareader's Poetry Corner: "The Journey" by Mary Oliver

Welcome to Readers and Poets

This is the poetry that comes into my life. Please feel free to comment on anything here. I don't think there is too much beauty in the world nor poetry. I will include some comments myself sometimes and some information on the poets, but the real stars is the work itself.

I am a believer in the reader-response theory of reading which means the reader is the one who puts the meaning in the poem so every interpretation is correct. Even if the poet means one thing, it could mean something else to the reader. I am pretty laid back in interpretation as each of us have other experiences and needs when reading.

I like using Zebrareader because it gives me tremendous freedom in what I want to write.

Friday, January 29, 2010

"The Journey" by Mary Oliver

This poem endeared me to Mary Oliver as no other poem she has written and inspired me when I needed inspiration. I have seen it quoted by other poets and readers when they themselves needed help in picking themselves up as all of us needed at one time or another.

"The Journey" first appeared in Mary Oliver's collection, "Dream Work", in 1986.

The Journey

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.
"mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
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 you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do