The self‑unseeing

Here is the ancient floor,
Footworn and hollowed and thin,
Here was the former door
Where the dead feet walked in.

She sat here in her chair,
Smiling into the fire;
He who played stood there,
Bowing it higher and higher.

Childlike, I danced in a dream;
Blessings emblazoned that day;
Everything glowed with a gleam;
Yet we were looking away!

by Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) , "The self-unseeing", from Poems of the Past and Present, published 1902

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by Gerald Finzi (1901-1956) , "The self-unseeing", op. 16 no. 3, published 1949 [baritone and piano], from Before and After Summer, no. 3.
by Douglas MacDonald Stewart (1892-?) , "The self-unseeing", published 1921. [voice, piano, and violin or violoncello obbligato]

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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Sheet music:

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Classical Vocal Repertoire