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The tigers of wrath

Set by Ned Rorem (1923 - 2022), "The tigers of wrath", 2001-2 [ medium voice, violin, cello, and piano ], from Aftermath, no. 2, Boosey & Hawkes
 [sung text not yet checked]

Note: this setting is made up of several separate texts.


The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.
If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
If others had not been foolish, we should be so.

Text Authorship:

  • by William Blake (1757 - 1827)

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Proverbi V", copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Proverbe V", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]



There is no spark of reason in the world
And all is raked in ashy heaps of beastliness.

Text Authorship:

  • by John Marston (1575? - 1634), appears in The Malcontent

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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]



The chestnut casts his flambeaux, and the flowers
  Stream from the hawthorn on the wind away,
The doors clap to, the pane is blind with showers.
  Pass me the can, lad; there's an end of May.
 
There's one spoilt spring to scant our mortal lot,
  One season ruined of our little store.
May will be fine next year as like as not:
  Oh ay, but then we shall be twenty-four.
 
We for a certainty are not the first
  Have sat in taverns while the tempest hurled
Their hopeful plans to emptiness, and cursed
  Whatever brute and blackguard made the world.
 
It is in truth iniquity on high
  To cheat our sentenced souls of aught they crave,
And mar the merriment as you and I
  Fare on our long fool's-errand to the grave.
 
Iniquity it is; but pass the can.
  My lad, no pair of kings our mothers bore;
Our only portion is the estate of man:
  We want the moon, but we shall get no more.
 
If here to-day the cloud of thunder lours
  To-morrow it will hie on far behests;
The flesh will grieve on other bones than ours
  Soon, and the soul will mourn in other breasts.
 
The troubles of our proud and angry dust
  Are from eternity, and shall not fail.
Bear them we can, and if we can we must.
  Shoulder the sky, my lad, and drink your ale.

Text Authorship:

  • by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936), no title, appears in Last Poems, no. 9, first published 1922

See other settings of this text.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]



This is not what man hates,
Yet he can curse but this.
Harsh Gods and hostile Fates
And dreams: this only is.

Text Authorship:

  • by Matthew Arnold (1822 - 1888), no title, appears in Empedocles on Etna, and Other Poems, in Empedocles on Etna, Act I, Scene 2, lines 303-306, an excerpt of a lengthy monologue by Empedocles

Go to the general single-text view

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]


Author(s): William Blake (1757 - 1827), Matthew Arnold (1822 - 1888), John Marston (1575? - 1634), Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936)
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