Like most of the bel canto school of composers, Bellini was an avid recycler of his own compositions. While most of these were from one opera to another, and more commonly from song to opera, it's well-nigh impossible to tell whether this song was written first, or whether Bellini transformed the aria afterwards into a song. Whatever the case may be, this piece is most familiar to listeners as Elvira's mad scene aria "Qui la voce," in I Puritani.

The melody, one of Bellini's most touching and memorable in its yearning, hesitant lyricism, is first introduced in the extensive piano opening, then as the vocal line begins, is iterated in both voice and piano, sometimes with the piano merely accenting the voice, at other times, the piano carrying the full melodic line.

The text, by Carlo Pepoli, also the librettist to I Puritani, is in sonnet form (though in most respects a musical innovator, Bellini was particularly drawn to old-fashioned structures and Arcadian themes), though Bellini does not follow this closely in his setting; in the second verse, which is structurally identical to the first in the text, Bellini used a slightly more declamatory style, with the original melody appearing only occasionally in either the vocal or the piano lines.

In the first section of the closing lines, the setting is less elegiac, though it still retains its yearning qualities, and the piano lines even become agitated briefly. For the closing three lines, however, the original melody is predominant, again shared by both voice and piano.

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