Mad song | The wild winds weep

The wild winds weep

Language: English

Our translations: CAT

The wild winds weep
  And the night is a-cold;
Come hither, Sleep,
  And my griefs unfold:
But lo! the morning peeps
  Over the eastern steeps,
And the rustling birds of dawn
  The earth do scorn. 

Lo! to the vault
  Of paved heaven,
With sorrow fraught
  My notes are driven:
They strike the ear of night,
  Make weep the eyes of day;
They make mad the roaring winds,
  And with tempests play. 

Like a fiend in a cloud,
  With howling woe,
After night I do crowd,
  And with night will go;
I turn my back to the east,
From whence comforts have increas'd;
For light doth seize my brain
With frantic pain.

About the headline (FAQ)

Note: said to have been written by Blake at the age of fourteen. First published in Poetical Sketches, 1783. In later editions of the poem, the word "unfold" in stanza 1, line 4 was changed to "infold".

Text Authorship:

by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "Mad song" [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 Samuel Hans Adler (b. 1928), "Mad song", published 1974 [ mixed chorus and band ], from Serenade, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
by Phillip Thomas Bezanson (1916 - 1975), "Mad Song", published 1966, from Contrasts, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
by James Henry Baseden Butt (b. 1929), "Mad song", op. 60 no. 4, published 1980, from Five William Blake Songs, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
by A. ten. Cate , "Mad song", 1970 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ], from Five somber songs [sung text not yet checked]
by James Friskin (1886 - 1967), "Mad song" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Vincent Sauter Frohne (b. 1936), "Mad song", op. 22 no. ? (1963-4), published 1968, first performed 1964 [ soprano and orchestra ], from Adam's Chains, Berlin : Bote & Bock [sung text not yet checked]
by Scott Gendel (b. 1977), "Mad song", 2005 [ soprano and violin ], from Shadow Songs, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
by (Richard) Kenneth Haxton (b. 1919), "Mad song", 1949, first performed 1969 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Arthur Hinton (1869 - 1941), "Mad song" [ voice and piano ], from Four Songs, 2nd Set, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
by Christine (Stadler) Jurasek (b. 1955), "Mad song ", 1984, first performed 1984 [ voice and instrumental ensemble ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Ulysses Simpson Kay (1917 - 1995), "Mad song", published 1952, first performed 1955 [ high voice and orchestra ], from Three Pieces after Blake, no. 2, New York, Composers Facsimile Edition and New York, C. Fischer [sung text not yet checked]
by John Mitchell (b. 1941), "The wild winds weep", op. 1 no. 6 (1964), rev. 1977, from Seven Songs from William Blake, no. 6 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Oskar Morawetz (b. 1917), "Mad song ", 1947, published 1962, first performed 1953 [ medium voice or high voice and piano ], Toronto : Leeds Music - MCA Canada [sung text not yet checked]
by Michael Murray , "Mad song", 2004 [ soprano, horn, and piano ], from The Wild Winds Weep, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
by Leif Segerstam (b. 1944), "Mad song", 1981 [ soprano or mezzo-soprano and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Leif Segerstam (b. 1944), "(Another) Mad song", 1982, first performed 1985?6 [ mezzo-soprano or soprano and string quartet ], from String Quartet, no. 25 [sung text not yet checked]
by Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov (1948 - 2020), "Mad song", op. 49 no. 4 (1987-8) [ soprano and instrumental ensemble (six instruments) ], from Songs of Love and Madness, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
by Leo Smith (1881 - 1952), "A mad song", 1910-20 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Robert Michael Spearing (b. 1950), "The wild winds weep ", 1976, first performed 1976 [ baritone, SATB chorus, and small orchestra ], from Visions of William Blake, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
by Ben Brian Weber (1916 - 1979), "Mad song ", op. 33 no. 3 (1951), published c1954, first performed 1952 [ baritone and chamber orchestra ], from Symphony on Poems of William Blake, no. 3, NY : American Composers Alliance [sung text not yet checked]
by Felix Werder (b. 1922), "Mad song ", 1961-2 [ soprano and piano ], from From the Blake Collection, op. 42 and op. 50, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
by Lawrence Willingham (b. 1942), "Mad song", op. 24 (1981) [ soprano, clarinet, 2 percussion instruments, 2 violins, viola, and violoncello ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Richard M. Willis (b. 1929), "Mad song", 1970 [ soprano, clarinet, percussion, and piano ], from Three Songs by Blake, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]

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

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 111