LIFE JOURNEY: The Journey by Mary Oliver Vs Si Tenggang’s Homecoming

by Muhammad Haji Salleh

The Journey by Mary Oliver

The writer of this poem is Mary Oliver. She was born in 1935 in Cleveland, Ohio. She
now lives in Provincetown, Massachusetts. At one time she was a secretary for Edna
St. Vincent Millay's sister, and there is some evidence of Millay's influence in
Oliver's early poetry. Her writing has few human subjects, but she draws us into her
humanity through her acute focus on nature and her precision with language. She is
the author of several volumes of poetry, including Winter Hours: Prose, Prose
Poems, and Poems (1999); West Wind (1997); White Pine (1994); New and Selected
Poems (1992), which won the National Book Award; House of Light (1990); and
American Primitive (1983), for which she won the Pulitzer Prize.

“The Journey” We All Encounter by Mary Oliver, life is an ongoing journey that
all people must undergo. Mary Oliver causes the reader to fully experience the
lifelong struggle of finding her/himself. Ultimately the common goal in this poem,
and in our lives, is to show one’s need to find him/her self through the countless
obstacles in our way. The idea in this poem is ongoing and lacking stanza breaks
can implicitly illustrate the notion that life itself is ongoing without “breaks”.

In this poem, the image that tried to front is the journey inside our self. This
awareness needs our inner conscious to move out little instinct. “One day you
finally knew what you had to do, and began” shows that Mary stressed on how the
awareness finally began and that person know that he/she needs to figure it out
through the journey in his/her life. Besides that, this poem also shows the cruelty of
life when we start or doing something new in our life. “Mend my life!” each voice
cried. But you didn’t stop”, shows how Oliver is explaining to the reader that
although we will discover many hardships in life, we must move on and continue our
personal journey. The one that know better about our self is only our self not
someone that either close or not. We must decide and take action of our decision
about our life. Oliver is going this to get an intense feeling across to the reader, the
feeling of urgency and the definitive need to reach that goal of life’s journey. This
idea we can be seen in “one day you knew what you had to do, and began, though
the voices around you kept shouting”. The feeling previously mentioned of being
“rushed” through the poem can be compared to the quickness of life. Our lives go
by faster than we expect. People don’t usually realize just what their goal of life’s
journey is, until they finally reach the end. Oliver is quickly pulling the reader
toward the end of the poem because that is where we find the reason or goal for
this “journey”. Being in the journey, the most important thing that we should keep
in mind is always be positive meaning to say positive-minded. Oliver suggested
that, being able to through all the obstacles during the journey we must always
think positive as illustrated in “but little by little, as you left their voices behind, that
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”.

Oliver’s poem does not give any image of culture but still bring the story of
someone who tries to explore him/herself no matter how hard it is. The character in
this poem shows the idea of how someone struggling in his/her life to find his/her
own identities. The story in this poem goes on directly without any interference of
any image of particular culture around it.

The mood and tone in Oliver’s’ poem tends towards strenuous and difficulties
in the journey. The hardships of the life’s journey are illustrated with Oliver’s
choices. For example, “though” is used four times. It is always the first words in a
line and followed by a hardship one must endure to reach the final destination. An
example of this is in lines “though the voice around you kept shouting”. Another
example of the use of “though” is in line “though the wind pried with its stiff
fingers”. It insinuates that there is something positive after the hardships.

Si Tenggang’s Homecoming by Muhammad Haji Salleh

The writer of this poem was Muhammad Haji Salleh. A well-known poet and sixth
Sasterawan Negara (National Laureate). His outstanding talent in the world of
Malay poetry gained recognition when he won the ASEAN Literary Award for his
anthology of poems Perjalanan Si Tenggang II. The language used in this poem was
a straight forward language yet it has a symbolic meaning. Each stanza in the
poem was build carefully by the poetry itself so that it has its own meaning. From
the poem, it can be seen that the poetry used a polite languages to deliver its own
sarcasm meaning.

In this poem, one of the images that Muhamad Haji Salleh wants to tell is
about being proud of one’s roots, culture and tradition. The poet believes that it is
important to be proud and always remember of their own roots, culture and
tradition. Muhamad Haji Salleh stressed out in this poem that after being in the
journey and being in others culture and tradition, people sometimes seem to forget
their own cultures but he is still the same. Muhamad Haji Salleh uses the word
“look” in “look, I’m just like you, still Malay” to remind his people that he is still
Malay and still the same person who know his identity and has a strong sense of
belonging towards his people, culture and tradition although he has gone abroad
and been with people of other cultures and language.

This poem puts the image of local Malaysian culture which is rich with
folktales. Si Tenggang himself is a character of a son who betrays to his mother and
his own people. He does not care of other people after travelling far from his home.
Within this poem, the poet tries to switch the character with different performance
by turning him into a good character who still relies on his own culture. He remains
the same person as he left. That would be the uniqueness of this poem by turning
the folktales into something useful for the reader.

The tone and voice in “si tenggang’s homecoming” is more about the feeling,
perceptions, and experiences of the persona and the elements are changing by
each stanza. The tone in this poem are rather relates to the mood of the persona
including feeling upset and disappointed. For example in the second stanza, the
persona shows some form of disappointment and is upset that the people have not
accepted his return with open arms. “.. In the country that alienated me, they
enveloped in their pre-judgement.”The persona feels disillusioned by these
thoughts. He feels he is alienated by his own people because they do not
understand him and are judgmental of him. He feels sad that the people are not
accepting him readily and feels lonely. It is shift from the sadness to serious tone
when he says “but look” to show the shift of the tone. The tone of the poem shows
that the persona is serious and determined to make his people understand the
reality. The persona feels strongly that he has become confident and
knowledgeable and that he expresses that he is more courageous and wiser.

Similarities and Differences between two poems

Both poems share a same purpose that is to emphasize the importance for all
people to go through a journey in their life so that they can find their own identities
and broaden their perspective and enrich their experience. Both the poems point
out that despite the challenges that one faces in completing one’s journey, one’s
must believe in themselves and do what they feel best. “Si Tenggang” for
examples, faces the challenge of being accepted in his community after his travels
but he still continue to believe that he is still the same as his people and willing to
share all his experiences with his fellow people. The persona in the “Journey” by
Mary Oliver also believe that she must insist on embarking on a journey to discover
herself despite all the restraining request from people around the persona that wish
to be “saved”.

The difference between the poems is “Si Tenggang’s Homecoming” was

written in a situation where the persona has return from his journey. This is
supported by line 21 in stanza 3 “i have brought myself home”. The persona has
returned from his journey in life with a difference perspective of viewing things and
life thus resulting in a conflict between him and his community whereas “The
Journey” shows that the persona is on the verge of embarking on the journey of his
or her life after making a determined decision. This is shown in line 1 and 2 “One
day you finally knew what you have to do, and began,” as the persona suddenly
realized what he or she have to go through a journey. The persona finally decided to
ignore “other voices” and listened to his or her own “voice” to discover the
persona’s ultimate goal in life.