I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained,
I stand and look at them long and long;
They do not sweat and whine about their condition.
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins.
Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things,
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.
Walt Whitman From Song Of Myself
Forgive the use of a hackneyed expression, but it doesn’t get any better than this. Most Americans, however, have long forgotten—if, indeed, they ever knew it—the wisdom of one of their greatest poets.
A great quote. I would have used it on my blog recently if I’d known it.
Just goes to show that being human is a double-edged sword!
So that’s where Lawrence got it from:
Self Pity
I never saw a wild thing
sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
without ever having felt sorry for itself.
Note the acrostic!
Thanks everyone for your comments.
Ah, yes, Duncan! I think Lawrence must have absorbed a lot from Whitman. That direct, sensual, life-affirming style in so many of Lawrence’s poems – so very Whitmanesque.