by Edmund Waller (1608 - 1687)
The self banished
Language: English
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 belong1 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]2,
And in his tainted blood the fire.3
But vow'd I have, and never must
Your banish'd servant trouble you;
For if I break, you may [distrust]4
The vow I made to love you, too.
J. Blow sets stanzas 1-2
1 [sic]
2 Elgar: "pain"
3 Elgar here adds
Absence 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 Elgar: "mistrust"Text Authorship:
- by Edmund Waller (1608 - 1687), "The self banished", written 1645 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by John Blow (1649 - 1708), "The self-banished", published 1700, stanzas 1-2, from Amphion Anglicus [text verified 1 time]
- by Edward Elgar, Sir (1857 - 1934), "The self banished", 1875 [soprano or tenor and piano], unpublished [text verified 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2009-02-07
Line count: 20
Word count: 141