Self-Pity D. H. Lawrence

I ran across Self-Pity for the first time watching G. I. Jane as a teenager. I have to admit that, at the time, I didn’t like it very much. It was dark and about a bird dying; what was there to like? But, at the same time it stuck with me.

Photo by Vivek Doshi on Unsplash

As time has progressed I have come to appreciate poetry that has a visceral emotional reaction even if it isn’t cheerful or hopeful. I came back to Self-Pity while writing Embers in the Ashes, the first book of the Slave Chronicles. In the middle of a scene I suddenly realized that the emotional reaction and the underlying truth of the poem is one that so perfectly matched the world view of one of my characters.

Unfortunately, the Slave Chronicles don’t happen in our world so I can’t actually reference the poem in the book. But I like to go back to it when I’m working on Jayden’s character.