Haunted House Dorothy Livesay Analysis

Dorothy Livesay was a leading Canadian poet with keen observation and ability to feel and express the precious moments of life. She was a prolific writer and won two Governor General’s Awards for Poetry. Livesay, right from her early years, was very much worried about the greed of mankind and wanted to stop violence against Nature and believed that we can survive only if we adapt to nature. Her early poems in Green Pitcher (1928) and Signpost (1932) deal with nature, personal and emotionally intense observations of a young girl on role of a woman in society.

Livesay had always sought for a special place for women in patriarchal world and this led her to deal with conflict between culture and nature. In this process she also highlighted position

She admits, “Any biological difference affects one’s point of view” (Interview with Lever 1975) still men and women are complementary, they really do need each other. For her even human beings and natural world are interdependent. In “Haunted House” she says culture may come and go, people may go away but “raspberries and grass/Are here to stay”. It suggests that nature is ever continuing, perpetual, self reflecting. So, if human beings are conscious of this special trait of nature it makes their vision wide with an inherent awareness of their participation and kinship with nature and its process. The flora, fauna, the birds and woodland always inspired Livesay. She felt a connection with nature and deals with it

Relke has all the praise for Livesay’s attempt to save ecological balance, when she remarks, “…neither the Wordsworths nor the Coleridges, the Lampmans nor the Carmans, have done anything to halt the attack on nature; the roar of cities has replaced their voices just as effectively as it has the Pioneer’s”(18). Those romantics sought refuge in nature’s lap away from hustle and bustle of cities, without any feeling to save or protect the gift of God to men. Long before the modern Century concept of ‘Sustainable Development’ was initiated by Livesay. Sustainability for humans means the capacity to endure and responsibility to manage the natural resources so as to maintain the diverse and productive biological system. If the resources are consumed thoughtlessly then nature will pose a challenge to living conditions. The ecological principle for the well being of all life on earth with all its richness and diversity is upheld by Livesay in her poetry. She envisioned men’s insatiable and unending thirst for materialism for which they sacrifice natural