Attuning to Instinct
This poem is an interior monologue in which one person is addressing an earlier version of herself after that earlier version underwent a transformation. Mary Oliver is a poet whose body of work glorifies the instinctive behavior of the non-human natural world. The inner voices of conflict inside the “you” of the poem are coming from inside the house that she metaphorically invents to describe the self. The poet is implying that humans need to learn from the instinctive behavior in the animal world by attuning themselves to recognize it in themselves as that voice of reason urging them not to pay attention to the voices of negation.
Self-Improvement
The “journey” of the poem is metaphorical. It is a journey toward self-improvement. The “you” the speaker addresses have become stalled in her path toward self-improvement by those voices offering “bad advice.” This advice is not from external sources but originates inside her own consciousness. They are the voices of self-doubt and self-destructive impulsive behavior that everyone must recognize and commit to overcome if they want to improve their circumstances. From the very beginning, this older version of the speaker knew what she had to do, and the poem is a recognition that she finally did what she had to do. Although explicitly defined, the context strongly suggests that this “thing” that needed to be done was fighting against these inner voices causing doubt and instigating unhealthy behavior in order to “save the only life” she has through a long process of self-improvement.
It’s Never Too Late
The recognition that she has to change comes fairly late in life for “you” as indicated by the reference to it being “late” on a “wild night” that her journey commences. That her battle with her inner demons has been going on for some time is indicated by the metaphor of the road being cluttered with debris caused by raging storms. The state of the road which is the path of her journey suggests that she may have set out on this journey before only to give up and turn back. The time has finally come to seek navigational guidance and commit to the hardship of reaching her destination. It is not a quick journey, as evidenced by how the voices of self-doubt only begin to fade away “little by little” but the point is that time doesn’t matter because it’s never too late for self-improvement.
