Dorothy Livesay’s poem “Experience” Essay

Dorothy Livesays poem Experience teaches that if one learns only from outside sources, then one forget never know what it is to feel independence and self-growth. By examining the authors personal experiences, the imagery, and the symbolism used the above statement will be proven true.Dorothys personal life had a large influence on her opinion about independence and self-growth. Her lengthy career spanning over 5 decades, her involvement with politics and her general travelling not only across Canada scarcely Paris and the soviet union kept her constantly experiencing new environments. This greatly affected her career as a poet, she let herself be influenced by altogether cultures and her surroundings. She began travelling independently at a young age and co inherently matured quickly, proving the idea that personal experience and learning first baseb tot on the wholey mitt is essential in fully understanding all aspects of life.Livesays comparison of having situations and expe riences forced upon you to the idea of eating bitter and stale bread leaving her heart tired and hollow shows a direct relation to the idea of maturing and growing as a person. So I went on my own road, tasting all fruits, all breads. As she grows up she has everyone around her assuming they know whats take up and force her to follow their ideas without any say. This hurts her ability to be independent and leaves her completely reliant on others and lacking personality and imagination. Realising this as she continues to grow older she decides to travel and experience new ideas and ways of living to learn for herself whats best for her personally. Although it is not guaranteed that everything you come across will have positive effects on your life, eventually what youre looking for will come across and you will grow as an individual.In the poem, Livesay uses bread as a symbol for the situations and experiences forced upon you by others, and fruits as the adventures you make and lea rn from independently. The bread is described as being bitter and stale, leaving her heart feeling empty and unsatisfiedas if something wasmissing. Once the decision was made to travel and experience everything for herself both breads and fruits she snarl like that part of her that was missing had been filled and completed. One could infer that the part of her that was missing was her independence and maturity date, which she developed as she continued to travel and work. Tasting all fruits, all breads And if some were bitter, others were sweet. So I learned, how the heart is fed.Dorothy Livesays personal life following the idea of independence and growth through travelling entirely and learning first hand, the imagery developed in the descriptions of how the bread and fruits taste, and the use of symbolism turning the idea of bread into undesirable events and fruits being the idea of self-growth and maturity show that the core message in Dorothy Livesays poem Experience is one cannot grow and mature as a person if they learn solely from outside sources.