The Self Banished
# The Self Banished

The Self Banished è una poesia scritta da Edmund Waller nel 1645 circa. Fu messa in musica dal compositore barocco John Blow nel 1700. È anche una delle prime canzoni scritte dal compositore inglese Edward Elgar. Composta nel 1875, appositamente per "soprano o tenore", non è stata pubblicata fino a poco tempo fa.

## Versi

Blow mise in musica le strofe 1 e 2. Elgar aggiunse una strofa che inizia con la sua scrittura di "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,
    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,
       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.]*
    But vow'd I have, and never must
       Your banish'd servant trouble you;
    For if I break, you may distrust
       The vow I made to love you, too.»

## Incisioni

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