He Abjures Love
Poet: Thomas Hardy
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Poem
He Abjures Love |
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| 1 | At last I put off love, | |
| 2 | For twice ten years | |
| 3 | The daysman of my thought, | |
| 4 | And hope, and doing; | |
| 5 | Being ashamed thereof, | |
| 6 | And faint of fears | |
| 7 | And desolations, wrought | |
| 8 | In his pursuing, | |
| 9 | Since first in youthtime those | |
| 10 | Disquietings | |
| 11 | That heart-enslavement brings | |
| 12 | To hale and hoary, | |
| 13 | Became my housefellows, | |
| 14 | And, fool and blind, | |
| 15 | I turned from kith and kind | |
| 16 | To give him glory. | |
| 17 | I was as children be | |
| 18 | Who have no care; | |
| 19 | I did not shrink or sigh, | |
| 20 | I did not sicken; | |
| 21 | But lo, Love beckoned me, | |
| 22 | And I was bare, | |
| 23 | And poor, and starved, and dry, | |
| 24 | And fever-stricken. | |
| 25 | Too many times ablaze | |
| 26 | With fatuous fires, | |
| 27 | Enkindled by his wiles | |
| 28 | To new embraces, | |
| 29 | Did I, by wilful ways | |
| 30 | And baseless ires, | |
| 31 | Return the anxious smiles | |
| 32 | Of friendly faces. | |
| 33 | No more will now rate I | |
| 34 | The common rare, | |
| 35 | The midnight drizzle dew, | |
| 36 | The gray hour golden, | |
| 37 | The wind a yearning cry, | |
| 38 | The faulty fair, | |
| 39 | Things dreamt, of comelier hue | |
| 40 | Than things beholden! . . . | |
| 41 | - I speak as one who plumbs | |
| 42 | Life's dim profound, | |
| 43 | One who at length can sound | |
| 44 | Clear views and certain. | |
| 45 | But - after love what comes? | |
| 46 | A scene that lours, | |
| 47 | A few sad vacant hours, | |
| 48 | And then, the Curtain. | |
(Hardy, 236-7) |
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Content/Meaning of the Poem:
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✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦
✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦
Musical Analysis
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Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes - Distributed by Hal Leonard Corporation
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Pedagogical Considerations for Voice Students and Instructors:
✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦
✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦
| Pitch Analysis | ||||||
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| pitch | stanza 1 |
stanza 2 |
stanza 3 |
stanza 4 |
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lowest |
E |
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| Rhythm Duration Analysis of Vocal Line | |||||
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| stanza 1 | stanza 2 | stanza 3 | stanza 4 | total | |
16th note |
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✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦
Audio Recordings
To a Poet |
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The Songs of Gerald Finzi to Words by Thomas Hardy
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Gerald Finzi |
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The English Song Series - 12 |
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The following are comments by Chia-wei Lee regarding the song He Abjures Love. Dr. Lee extended permission to post this excerpt from his dissertation on February 16, 2012. His dissertation dated 2003, is entitled:
A Performance Study of Gerald Finzi's Song Cycle
"Before and After Summer"
This excerpt begins on page 96 and concludes on page 100.
The preceding were comments by Chia-wei Lee regarding the song He Abjures Love. Dr. Lee extended permission to post this excerpt from his dissertation on February 16th, 2012. His dissertation dated 2003, is entitled:
A Performance Study of Gerald Finzi's Song Cycle
"Before and After Summer"
The excerpt began on page 96 and concluded pn page 100.
The following is an analysis of **** by Gerhardus Daniël Van der Watt. Dr. Van der Watt extended permission to post this excerpt from his dissertation on October 8th, 2010. His dissertation dated November 1996, is entitled:
The Songs of Gerald Finzi (1901-1956) To Poems by Thomas Hardy
This excerpt comes from Volume II and begins on page *** and concludes on page ***. To view the methodology used within Dr. Van der Watt's dissertation please refer to: Methodology - Van der Watt.
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Unpublished Analysis Excerpts
The following is an analysis of He Abjures Love by Curtis Alan Scheib. Dr. Scheib extended permission to post this excerpt from his dissertation on February 17th, 2012. His dissertation dated 1999, is entitled:
Gerald Finzi's Songs For Baritone On Texts By Thomas Hardy: An Historical And Literary Analysis And Its Effect On Their Interpretation
This excerpt begins on page sixty-seven and concludes on page sixty-nine.
He Abjures Love |
||
|---|---|---|
| At last I put off love, | ||
| For twice ten years | ||
| The daysman of my thought, | ||
| And hope, and doing; | ||
| Being ashamed thereof, | ||
| And faint of fears | ||
| And desolations, wrought | ||
| In his pursuing, | ||
| Since first in youthtime those | ||
| Disquietings | ||
| That heart-enslavement brings | ||
| To hale and hoary, | ||
| Became my housefellows, | ||
| And, fool and blind, | ||
| I turned from kith and kind | ||
| To give him glory. | ||
| I was as children be | ||
| Who have no care; | ||
| I did not shrink or sigh, | ||
| I did not sicken; | ||
| But lo, Love beckoned me, | ||
| And I was bare, | ||
| And poor, and starved, and dry, | ||
| And fever-stricken. | ||
| Too many times ablaze | ||
| With fatuous fires, | ||
| Enkindled by his wiles | ||
| To new embraces, | ||
| Did I, by wilful ways | ||
| And baseless ires, | ||
| Return the anxious smiles | ||
| Of friendly faces. | ||
| No more will now rate I | ||
| The common rare, | ||
| The midnight drizzle dew, | ||
| The gray hour golden, | ||
| The wind a yearning cry, | ||
| The faulty fair, | ||
| Things dreamt, of comelier hue | ||
| Than things beholden! . . . | ||
| - I speak as one who plumbs | ||
| Life's dim profound, | ||
| One who at length can sound | ||
| Clear views and certain. | ||
| But - after love what comes? | ||
| A scene that lours, | ||
| A few sad vacant hours, | ||
| And then, the Curtain. | ||
(Hardy, 236-7) |
||
Here, rather than the sad acknowledgement of the decay of love and physical beauty in "Amabel," the poet is completely renouncing love. Remembered is the peacefulness of life before he knew what love was, and the poem ends with the realization that there e is nothing left after love but death. It is Hardy at his most fatalistic. Finzi's setting was composed around 1939 and is in a recitative/aria structure, though it is also possible to trace elements of sonata form at work in the structure as well. The song begins with a strong statement of the abjuration (example 35).
The accompanimental figure that begins after the word "love" signals the beginning of a stormy section for the first two verses of the poem, filled with tremendous momentum and a declamatory vocal line. The "aria" arrives on the third stanza as the stormy motion slows (example 36).
This theme also serves as a second subject in the sonata-like structure. The remaining verses go through an idea of development and recapitulation. The last stanza of the poem brings the recapitulation of the second theme, this time in the tonic of B minor. The song ends with a symbolic lowering of the curtain, a descent to a final B minor chord in the lower reaches of the piano. The arrival of the bleakness of death, which is all that comes after love in Hardy's view, is all the more powerful because of the totality of experience of the ten poems that Finzi has included in the set. Though Finzi did not refer to Before and After Summer as a cycle, the sequence of emotion and expression contained in the ten songs is unmistakable.
The preceding was an analysis of He Abjures Love by Curtis Alan Scheib. Dr. Scheib extended permission to post this excerpt from his dissertation on February 17th, 2012. His dissertation dated 1999, is entitled:
Gerald Finzi's Songs For Baritone On Texts By Thomas Hardy: An Historical And Literary Analysis And Its Effect On Their Interpretation
The excerpt began on page sixty-seven and concluded on page sixty-nine.