Mary Oliver the creator of an courageous poem “The Journey”. A main idea is to show us how to listen to ourselves. Throughout the whole poem Mary implies that we need to follow our own destiny. This poem uses Attitude, Figurative Language and Shift to create the theme stick to your journey and don’t give up.The attitude of this poem is serious or strike. Mary Oliver stated things like “…determined to do the only thing you could do…” This statement show that this poem is serious, it talks about something that happened in her life, a serious journey that she took, that may have greatly impacted her life. She is saying don’t give up life has some bumps in the road, but you have to keep pushing. Mary Oliver uses personification in this poem when Oliver writes “…though the wind pried with it’s stiff fingers and the very foundations…” Oliver is giving the wind human qualities by saying that it has fingers and is prying something. This also represent an obstacle in Mary Oliver’s life, but she pushed through them tell us that we can push through it too. This is how Mary Oliver used figurative language to further create the theme.A shift in this poem by Mary Oliver occurs when she shifts from sad to determined. The first part of the poem is shown to be sad when Oliver writes “…though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles. “Mend my life!” each voice cried.” This shows some of the sadness around her. People crying for her to help them when she could not. The tone shifts to determined when she writes “But you didn’t stop. You knew what you had to do.” She was then determined to do what she had to do implying you can’t give up stay persistent.All in all Mary Oliver uses Figurative Language, Attitude and Shift to create the theme stick to your journey and don’t give up. Her poem speaks to many and is very encouraging to be yourself and follow your dreams.