From The Poem 'Piano' By D.H Lawrence, What Does The Phrase 'In Spite Of Myself, The Insidious Mastery Of Song Betrays Me Back, Till The Heart Of Me Weeps To Belong, Mean?

This poem opens with a woman singing. The sound reminds Lawrence of himself as a child, sitting under the piano and listening to his mother playing and singing.

In the second verse, he doesn't want to remember this ("In spite of myself") because it's so painful (Lawrence's mother was dead when he wrote the poem.) But the music is both subtle ("insidious") and powerful ("mastery.") So he is "betrayed" (tricked, if you will) into going back into this painful memory. His heart wants to belong/go back to the old days, Sunday evenings and other memories, and this longing weakens him. The poem ends with him crying "I weep like a child for the past."

It is betraying him cause it is causing him to have a emotional rather than reasoning and non sentimental response. Emotion was not taken very well back then.

I think the poet thought that the song is betraying him because it reminds him of his mother when she was alive.