The Self Banished

"The Self Banished" is a poem written by Edmund Waller in about 1645. It was set to music by the baroque composer John Blow in 1700.^[1]

It is also one of the first songs written by the English composer Edward Elgar. Composed in 1875, specifically for "soprano or tenor", it was unpublished until recently.

Lyrics

Blow set stanzas 1 and 2. Elgar added a stanza beginning with his own spelling of "Absence".

THE SELF-BANISHED

It is not that I love you less

Than when before your feet I lay:

But to prevent the sad increase

Of hopeless love, I keep away.

In vain! (alas!) for ev'ry thing

Which I have known belong to you,^[2]

Your form does to my fancy bring,

And makes my old wounds bleed anew.

Who in the Spring from the new Sun

Already has a fever got,

Too late begins those shafts to shun,

Which Phoebus through his veins has shot.

Too late he would the pain assuage,

And to shadows thick he doth retire;

About with him he bears the rage,^[3]

And in his tainted blood the fire.

[Abscence is vain for ev'ry thing

That I have known belong to you,

Your form does to my fancy bring,

And makes my old wounds bleed anew.]*^[4]

But vow'd I have, and never must

Your banish'd servant trouble you;

For if I break, you may distrust^[5]

The vow I made to love you, too.

Recordings

• Elgar: Complete Songs for Voice & Piano Amanda Roocroft (soprano), Reinild Mees (piano)

References

External links

• The Self Banished: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project